My First Portfolio.

This year, I finally registered for my first Photo Class at Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, USA. Why now? Because I didn't want to wait any longer. I first thought about going to art school when I was 14 years old, but my dreams never came true. Although I was trying hard not to be an ordinary human being, I never convinced myself that I was a good material to be an artist. So when the time has come, instead of going to art school, I went to regular high school and so my adventures with foreign languages began..

That was probably one of the best decisions ever made. I like to believe it made me who I am right now. After high school, I went to one of the most famous polish universities (Jagiellonian University, Cracow), I lived in one of the most beautiful polish cities.. I studied foreign languages, mostly French and Spanish. And I never thought about art school again.


Until now. Being in foreign country, working hard all the time makes you sick. Sooner or later, you have to find something you can do just for yourself. Otherwise, you'll get crazy.. After I'd sworn to myself that I wasn't going to study any more, I thought that it would be actually a good idea to go to College. And so it started.. Photo Classes..

I enjoyed it very very much.. My teacher was great, he was an extremely good photographer himself. He taught me a lot about B&W Photography, he showed me how to develop films, make prints and mount them. He taught me how to change details without Photoshop involved. I started working on my first portfolio: "Unconventional Self Portrait."

"(...) Why unconventional self portrait? I've always sensed the presence of another force in my life as I've always believed that the realm of duality exists. I believe that every single thing, including ourselves, exists along with its opposite. We are organic and refined, dark and light, happy and upset, black and white, not just gray. We all go through ups and downs, we cry at night and we laugh in the daytime. We have reason but we also have emotions. We are actors in the theater of life, aren't we? While taking these pictures, I'm telling my true story, revealing my alter ego. These pictures truly are my personal vision of myself."

From the series of exposures I've made for the first portfolio, I've chosen double exposure shots as most interesting. Especially from technical point of view (I use a 35mm camera and a tripod, but it's getting yet more dramatic: I'm the main subject of my experiment). I create a new persona without knowing how she's going to come out in the picture. Double exposure is also hard to be captured on the prints. I'm almost transparent. Don't forget that we're dealing with a negative not digital..There's no Photoshop involved.

Those pictures are very emotional to me. Looking at them, I fear what will happen next, I feel uncertain. "Guardian Angel" is my favorite one. I never expected this picture to come out like that. It's exactly the way I wanted. It's almost like a paint. "Evil Twin" is the second picture I really like. My friends are a little bit afraid of me now. Mostly because of that "spooky" aspect of my photos. The picture "Trying to survive..", for that matter, reminds them some terrifying horror movie covers. Well, as I said in my artist statement: " I will create an army of me.. So beware! Your emotions will take you where you have never been before.."