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20 February 2013 · 2 Comments

Ansel Adams at 111

The Tetons and the Snake River by Ansel Adams. Image in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Tetons and the Snake River by Ansel Adams. Image in the pub­lic domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ansel Adams, born on 20 Feb 1902, would have been 111 years old today. His approach to pho­to­graphy, requir­ing a pre­cise tech­nique, coupled with a sens­it­ive heart, and a per­cept­ive mind, is as fresh today as it was in his hey­day, in the early part of the 20th cen­tury. Even a curs­ory search for his name on the web­sites pop­u­lar with the more involved pho­to­graph­ers, APUG, Large Format Photography Forum, or photo.net, yields 20,000 unique posts and com­ments about him, many of which are recent.

Why is Ansel Adams so rel­ev­ant today? In short: Adams con­tin­ues to inspire pho­to­graph­ers. He has been inspir­ing me for a long time, so let me share my per­spect­ive with you, as my small way of say­ing a thank you to this amaz­ing man.

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30 September 2012 · 4 Comments

It's All About the Print

A framed, mat­ted, and dry-mounted print. It is miss­ing my sig­na­ture in the lower-right corner of the open­ing, because this is a work-in-progress print (the blacks are too deep for my liking).

Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but I think a phys­ical print, some­thing tan­gible, that you can put on a wall, gift to someone, handle, or just share with friends, is a more power­ful form of visual art than an eph­em­eral digital file, or a slide show. There is abso­lutely noth­ing wrong, inferior, or super­ior about digital pho­to­graphy, and I enjoy it very much. With tra­di­tional, ana­logue pho­to­graphy, the primary way to share a pho­to­graph has always been a print. I admire digital even more, when it has been prin­ted and presen­ted well. However, I feel that the art of simple, under­stated print present­a­tion is get­ting lost in the sea of gigantic prints, affixed to oddest sur­faces, rarely adding to the express­ive power of an image. I prefer the import­ant detail of a print to be in front of me, rather than stretched onto the sides, or even the backs, of a frame…

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25 February 2012 · 15 Comments

The Expressive Black and White Print Workshop by John Sexton

Rafal Lukawiecki and John Sexton at John Sexton Workshop 2011

Rafal Lukawiecki and John Sexton at John Sexton Workshop 2011

After many years of think­ing about it, I have taken the cour­age to apply to attend John Sexton’s fam­ous The Expressive Black and White Print work­shop, which he has run for 29 years, hav­ing star­ted in the days when he was Ansel Adams assist­ant. I was delighted to have been accep­ted, and I arrived in Carmel Valley, California, on the even­ing of 15 November 2011, where I met seven other attendees, from all over the world: Alastair Firkin, Frank, Herb Swick, Linda Fitch, Mike Reeves, Stephanie Slaymaker, and Steve Hartsfield.

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1 October 2011 · Leave a comment

Photographing Slot Canyons

Canyon X, Abstract 2

Canyon X, Abstract 2

I have just com­pleted my third trip to the slot canyons of the American Southwest, and a second one to Canyon X — and my 41st to the Southwest. It is a breath­tak­ing place, some­what chal­len­ging tech­nic­ally, extremely reward­ing, and a sort of a spir­itual exper­i­ence — all at the same time. While I wait to print my new pho­to­graphs, I would like to share a few thoughts about that place, about my pho­to­graphic tech­nique, and about the feel­ing of being there.

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28 April 2011 · Leave a comment

A Love of American Landscape

When I was a child I lived in com­mun­ist Poland. I knew America — which is how we usu­ally referred to USA at the time — as that land where everything was pos­sible, people were free, and the land­scape was filled with mira­cu­lous shapes and vis­tas. Later, when I read the books and when I browsed National Geographics at the lib­rary of the US Consulate in Kraków, I felt I was right, and I aspired to see it with my own eyes, some day. When I was fif­teen, I saw the Challenger dis­aster on TV, and I was shocked by it. I hung a poster of its crew, which I have also man­aged to get from the Consulate, over my desk, to remind me of the hopes and the dreams that some people were pre­pared to ful­fil by going to such extremes. That inspir­a­tion imbued me with a hope­ful feel­ing towards that land and its people, that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

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28 March 2011 · 2 Comments

How to Print a Book of Black-and-White Photographs?

Proudly holding a test run sheet at the back of a Heidelberg Speedmaster

Proudly hold­ing a test run sheet at the back of a Heidelberg Speedmaster

My exhib­i­tion, (Be)Longing, has closed, but the book of the same title, which I have prin­ted for the show, is here to remain. I am pleased with the book. The lay­out is nice, and the repro­duc­tions of my prints came out really well. I’d like to share a few thoughts about the pro­cess, and the people, who helped me get it prin­ted. Of course, you can buy it here, too.

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27 January 2011 · 17 Comments

Opening of (Be)Longing in Kraków

Karolina Vyšata and Rafal Lukawiecki at the Opening of (Be)Longing Exhibition in Kraków

Karolina Vyšata intro­duces Rafal Lukawiecki. Courtesy © Szymon Madej.

(Be)Longing, my first solo exhib­i­tion, has opened at 7 PM, on Friday, 14 January 2011, at the Stained Glass Museum in Kraków. It has been a very emo­tional moment for me, but there was no time for tears: a last minute rush to get everything ready was fol­lowed by an unex­pec­tedly large turnout. Having planned for 40 – 50 guests, I was very nicely sur­prised when some 120 turned up. Thank you!

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5 January 2011 · 2 Comments

Interest in Photography

I have been inter­ested in pho­to­graphy since I was a child. I became enchanted when I saw an image appear on a sheet of paper float­ing in a dish filled with developer. That was bet­ter than magic. I received my first cam­era from my uncle. My mother took the next step when she signed me up for mem­ber­ship in a local photo club. Soon, as a nine-year-old, I star­ted devel­op­ing my first pic­tures and I was show­ing off my know­ledge of optical aber­ra­tions to my play­mates.

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4 January 2011 · 2 Comments

Travels

My day-to-day job requires me to travel a lot. I beat my own record by vis­it­ing forty-six coun­tries in 2010. I used my large format cam­era in only two of them, in one I used medium format. This does not alter the fact that all of my travels have been teach­ing me respect and under­stand­ing for other cul­tures as well as help­ing me per­ceive col­our and unique­ness in the world that sur­rounds us. Nevertheless, my heart always wants to return to the moun­tains and the deserts.

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3 January 2011 · Leave a comment

The Meaning of (Be)Longing

It is dif­fi­cult for me to express in words what I see in those land­scapes. I am cer­tain that there are sev­eral inter­con­nec­ted lay­ers in my see­ing, to which I react emo­tion­ally. In its first express­ive layer, (Be)Longing lets me show beauty and serenity of places that are rather for­bid­ding to a man. I am curi­ous about the mag­netic attrac­tion of a desert in which one step too far under the Delicate Arch is a step towards death. Why do the slot canyons of the Navajo land fas­cin­ate with their paint­erly, unique beauty, while stand­ing in them in a heav­ier rain leads to a tragedy? The dif­fi­culty of liv­ing in many of the places that I have been record­ing is as sheer as our souls’ yearn­ing to belong to them. The fur­ther I am from the arid Mojave the more I long for it. Circumstances caused those forces to remain sep­ar­ate. My pho­to­graphs let me, and I hope the view­ers, exper­i­ence the exal­ta­tion of a moment when those feel­ings join each other in an image.

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