I was born in Poland, now I live in Cardiff in the UK, before I spent 4 years in Asia, living in Hong Kong.

I am a member of a new The Wideangle photo agency. click here for Contact Details

Exhibitions

- April 2007 – AFRYKAMERA festival, Warsaw, Poland - “Africa”.
- June 2007 – Goteborg Museum, Sweden - “Transsexuals of India”.
- September 2007 – Nantes City Hall, Nantes, France - “Cardiff”

press publications

March 2008 - Digital Camera magazine, UK - portfolio
16 February 2008 - Vacature magazine, Belgium
9 February 2008 - Vacature magazine, Belgium
January 2008 - GetLost! magazine Australia
January 2008 - FOTO magazine, Poland - portfolio
December 2007 - KRUGER magazine, 15th issue, UK
November 2007 - Der Spiegel, Germany
Autumn 2007 - NEED magazine, 3rd issue, US - “HOPE” photoessay about HOPE organization from Kolkata, India
2007 - KRUGER magazine, 14th issue, Wales - Cate LeBon – singer from Cardiff
May/June 2007 - SERENDIB - The Magazine of SriLankan Airlines - Show of Spirit in Hong Kong
April 2007 - NEED Magazine, Issue 2, US - two stories from Africa: Flying Medical Service and The Hunger Project
March 2007 - DC Photo, Hong Kong - portfolio
Winter 2006 - Need Magazine, Issue 1, US - a story about the Pakistan earthquake aftermath
end 2006 - Lonely Planet Cityscape Delhi book
end 2006 - Lonely Planet Cityscape Bangkok book
November 2006 - Himal Southasian magazine, Nepal - the cover
September 2006 - Wales on Sunday, Wales - a two-page centrespread story
July 2006 - GLOBTROTER, issue 4, Poland - a cover story about Pakistan
May 2006 - CLICK! magazine, Malysia - portfolio
April 2006 - Amateur Photographer, UK - portfolio
February 2006 - Photography Monthly, UK - portfolio
January 2006 - Outdoor Photographer, US - India story
May 2005 - HK magazine, Hong Kong - a cover photo
2005 - World Pulse Magazine, US
May 2005 - Star Tribune newspaper, Milwaukee, US
2005 - World Pulse Magazine, US – a cover photo and 3 photos inside


Selected photography projects

• April 2007 – ‘HOPE’ – a story about HOPE organization working with street children in Kolkata, India. Assigned by NEED magazine and published in the third issue of the magazine.
• January 2007 – ‘The Hunger Project in Malawi’, a story about the hunger prevention program and people who receive humanitarian aid from this NGO in Africa, assigned by NEED magazine and published in the second issue.
• December 2006 – ‘Flying Medical Service’ in Tanzania, a story about an independent medical organization in Tanzania, supported by ‘Wings of Hope’. It is a four people team having two small airplanes and bringing medical help to Masai villages. Assigned by NEED magazine and published in the second issue.
• April 2006 – ‘Six months after the earthquake in Pakistan’ – a story about the earthquake survivors. Shot on assignment for NEED magazine in cooperation with UNICEF, ‘Save the Children’ and ‘Sungi’ organizations. Published in the first, Winter 2006 issue of the magazine.
• January 2006 – ‘Vuyiroli – a home for the destitute in India’ – a story about a hospice for elderly and destitute people in Chennai, India run by “Vuyiroli” NGO.
• December 2005, Jaunuary 2006 - ‘The CHES orphanage for AIDS children in India’ – a story about orphans and HIV positive children living in an orphanage run by the ‘CHES’ organization in Chennai, India
• December 2005 - ‘Hijras - India's third gender’ - a story about Indian trans-sexual community, in cooperation with “CHES” organization – an NGO based in Chennai.
• August 2005 – ‘The garbage dump in Phnom Penh’ – a story about the garbage dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, focusing on children labour, poverty and aid from international organizations.
• July 2005 – ‘Wat Norea’ – a story about a Buddhist orphanage for AIDS children in Battambang, Cambodia.
• November 2004 till now – long term personal projects here in Cardiff, including ‘Big games in Cardiff’ – a story about big sport matches in the city; ‘The Glamorgan City Council Staff Club’ – a story about an old pub and its customers; and ‘Nightlife in Cardiff’ – documenting the city life at night – in bars, clubs and on the street.


Questions and answers

- are you a professional photographer?

hm, a difficult question,. I call myself a semi-pro photographer. I work at university as Research Assiatant and I am doing a PhD in computing, but photography is my main occupation, taking most of my time and all my energy. I am getting more and more publications, more contacts and I hope to make living of photography in the near future.

- when did you start?

the end of 2003. when I joined http://www.TrekEarth.com. Before I didn't even know that pictures can be composed.

- equipment?

2 DSLRs: a Canon EOS 5D - since December 2005 and Canon EOS 20D - since December 2004, my backup camera. Before I used a Canon EOS 300D - since March 2004, which was my first dSLR.

5 lenses at the moment: Canon EF 24-105 f/4L, Canon EF 35 f/1.4L, Canon EF 35 f/2.0, Canon EF 50 f/1.8 and Canon 70-200 f/4L. the 35mm f/2 is for sale.

With the 5D I use my Canon EF 24-105 f/4L lens almost all the time - the range is perfect and the IS helps in low-light situations - no more changing lenses. the only drawback of this lens are heavy distortions, almost at any focal distance.
the 35mm f/1.4 is the second lens I use - mostly for shooting at night and indoors, and street photography, less obtrusive.

20D is my backup camera, I haven't used it for a year or more. Before I used another Canon 300D (which was stolen with all my belongings in India in July 2004), Canon G3 (from Nov 2003, using which I started my photo affair) and Nikon 4500 (snaphots, wasted photo opportunites ;)..

I also have a few film cameras: Leica M6TTL with 500 summicron, Ricoh GR1v and Olympus mjuII. I don't use them.

I shoot in RAW format. Most of the time I use the camera's P mode, in low light situations I often use shutter speed priority, shooting portraits or landscape I often use aperture priority program. I make sure that I have enough light - I adjust ISO frequently. I use autofocus most of the time, only when it is very dark and the autofocus doesn't work I try to use manual focus.

I have simple UV filters on my zoom lenses only just to protect them.

- favorite photographers?

mostly Magnum photographers - Alex Webb, David Alan Harvey, Harry Gruyaert, Martin Parr, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka (his decisive moments), Sebastiao Salgado. all the folks from VII - including James Nachtwey of course and Joachim Ladefoged - he reviewed my portfolio once, I have a great respect for the diversity of his work.

- Recently purchased books?

I buy quite a lot of photography books and albums

Alex Webb - Istanbul; Eugene Richards - Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue; Birgus; The Bystander; Amazon - Alex Webb, My Morocco - Bruno Barbey, Dreams of India - Raghu Rai, Divided Soul - David Alan Harvey, Crossings - Alex Webb, American Color - Constantine Manos, Tamil Nadu - Raghubir Singh, South Southeast - Steve McCurry, Winterreise - Luc Delahaye, River of colour The India of Raghubir Singh, Under a grudging Sun - Alex Webb, Cuba - David Alan Harvey, Lumieres Blanches - Harry Gruyaert, Europa - Carl de Keyzer, Magnum Stories, Henri Cartier-Bresson - The man, the image and the world

- cropping?

I don't crop pictures

- post-processing?

Very little, done in Photoshop CS2, but I am almost a complete amateur in that matter. before posting pictures on the Internet what I do is - resize, then sharpening - using Luko's method from TrekEarth, then auto-contrast, auto-colors (if white balance was not correct - like if the picture was reddish...) adjustments - (sometimes fading the results using Fade function from Edit menu). Sometimes I use other functions like Levels, Curves, Contrast/Brightness, Color balance. I also sometimes burn or dodge locally. I use burning before adjusting levels and contrast to preserve highlights. Usually I don't saturate colors in PS, there are very few exceptions.

Anyway, I try to do as few adjustments as possible. Most of the time preparing an image for web posting (the whole post-processing) takes me less than 1 minute...

- flash

In summer 2005 I bought an external flash unit - a Canon 420EX, and I like it very much, but I don't use it much

- taking pictures of people on the street...

I am rather a shy person ;) and I have problems with that too, it is a difficult part of photography. I don't shoot portraits on the street in the western world, very rarely.
In Cardiff working on street photography I shoot fast - I see sth, I raise my camera and click, not talking to people. I find myself shooting from the hip often as well, with a wide angle lens it gives surprising good results. I don't hide my camera though, it is im my hand, people see that I take pictures. Sometimes I stand at one place and wait for the scene "to compose itself".
While travelling photographying people is easier for me somehow.

- travelling

I travel on my own, I don't use travel agencies to arrange my travels. I try to travel as often as I can, since the last few years I spend about 3 month each year travelling. travelling and photography consumes all my money ;) oh well

- Recent travels

August/September 2007, 7 weeks - China
April 2007, 4 weeks - India
December 2006, 6 weeks - Tanzania and Malawi
July 2006, 1 week - Austria nad Slovakia
April 2006, 4 weeks - Pakistan
December 2005, 4 weeks - India


And thank you for all the comments. I appreciate all your words, all opinions.