Białowieża Primeval Forest – the last refugium of the natural forests that once densely covered the lowlands of Europe. Whenever I photograph this First Forest, I have the impression of something grand and most real – connate. This forest of my ancestors (and yours, Europeans), captivates me immensely and continues to captivate me with inextinguishable power. It allows itself to be discovered, allows me to dream, to study frames of wilderness emotion…
The world of the Biebrza Marshes, vast expanses marked by unspeakable wildness and at the same time the freedom we dream of. This is exactly the Biebrza aesthetics, the aesthetics of longing eyes for boundlessness, the aesthetics of bird gatherings, the aesthetics of the joy of lush life. No landscape and nature photographer can resist this captivating charm, consequently – incurable.
Vingrus, means strange, winding in Lithuanian. Indeed, it would be hard to find a more winding, twisted lake. Just the most general shape of Wigry Lake resembles a zigzagging letter S, and the shoreline full of peninsulas, headlands, bays and coves creates a tangle of a unique kind. I first saw these places from a helicopter, shooting film shots. This enchantment from on high has endured and, subconsciously or intentionally, I transferred it to later photographic frames. And those aerial, terrestrial, above water or even underwater.
A life dependent on the element of ubiquitous sand. Not grains, but tons, megatonnes of deadly loose rock, migrating with water and wind. This is the Słowiński National Park – the Łebsko Spit, lakes: Łebsko, Gardno and several smaller ones, as well as forests and peat bogs. Our dreamt-of long ago, then filmed more than once, THE LAND OF WATER, SAND AND WIND. Huge wandering dunes not only annihilate life, but also create the conditions for the expansion of new life. I fell in love with this harsh, seemingly hostile world at first sight.
Just like our sky-high Tatras…
