I know that judging art is a bad thing, because only the creator can judge his work well. That’s why I don’t send my works to photo contests, fully aware of how many outstanding painters were appreciated only after death.
But still, it’s nice when even the more difficult works appeal to someone, especially when it’s a Vogue Italia photo editor.
Here another recognition of my work, for which I sincerely thank you.
As I mentioned with the Lilies, girlhood and portraits (nudes) of women are my biggest inspirations and a way to express my emotions and thoughts. But not only – I am inspired by every area of art and photography. A photographer in cities such as Krakow or Warsaw has a lot of photographically attractive objects at his disposal. But isn’t it the case that it is the undiscovered places that are the best way to exercise the eye, the heart, the composition and the language of visual communication?
The editors of Vogue Italia this time decided to highlight my photo of Silesian landscape and architecture. Of course, they are not some kind of determinant of either what should or should not be allowed in art, they simply highlight photos that conform to a certain aesthetic line of the editors, but every time such a distinction is something nice. On my account in Vogue where I insert photos that do not include people, these works appeared:
Traditionally, I would like to thank the editors of Vogue for the award and you for seeing my works and hosting me on the site 🙂 I invite you to sessions in different cities – as a photographer – Cracow, Kielce, Warsaw, Katowice 🙂
My keynote, which guided me from the idea to the realization of this short series of photographs, was a passage from the work of William Butler Yeats:
The innocent and the beautiful
HAve no enemy, but time
And an excerpt from a sonnet by Edmund Spenser:
The breasts like lilies til other leaves be shared
Her nipples like young blossomed jessamine
such fragrant flowers to give most odour’s smell
but her sweet odour did them all excel
Innocence and its loss, and consequently considerations of truth, have had a very long list of representations in iconology and painting – I will not describe here everything I was familiar with before creating these photographs with the Model.
I will only add that I wanted with this series to ask what is innocence? How does it connect with youth and carnality? Does it also connect with the spiritual element of man? Does this spiritual element even exist? How does it pass away? What is the loss of innocence? Can innocence be longed for? Finally – Lily’s Innocence – I wanted to play with words a bit. Whose innocence? The bud of the lily flower, or the girl named Lilia? Lilianna?
As it is usually me and my paintings – jittery in the light, a bit dark, mysterious and questioning, looking for a way….
Thank you to the model, Natalia for realizing my idea 🙂
One photo from this series was once again selected by the photo editors of Vogue Italia 🙂
Summer starts beautifully, another portrait full of girlishness and tenderness (every nude is a portrait, although not every portrait is a nude 🙂 of the beautiful Natalia 🙂 Grazie editori, molte grazie ragazzi (okay, I don’t speak Italian, but a beautiful language, will have to learn 🙂
And an even earlier portrait that Vogue editors also loved, this time of the lovely Anna 🙂
Summer greetings I send. Weather like in sunny Italy 🙂 As for me it can be 🙂
It’s been a little long since I’ve written anything, but not by the fact that I forgot about my home page, which as a portfolio I polished with colors and appreciate it the most. A bit of responsibilities, a bit of illness of loved ones and taking care of them and a turnaround or rather a spate of various events – well, that was enough. Since September (as of today) I have a solemn resolution to come here more often. I’m glad that I have my online portfolio, because it’s my home and an exhibition that I can show to you in the form I want and that I like, not that one or another social network imposes on me. Not to mention that Fb or Insta have introduced algorithms that have gone very badly for displays from really good photographers. Some people urge me to continue publishing on Insta or Fb, but given these silly algorithms and their social engineering used by the company on F, its predilection for removing content if something doesn’t conform to their view of anything, I think I’ll retire from IG and Fb altogether, though. But to the point 🙂 Photos by Michal Seensoul at Italian VOGUE Photography!
So, well, okay, and in school the teacher repeated that you don’t start a sentence with a so. So I have and I have the Golden Grail dreamed of by many photographers, publication in Vogue.ITALIA 🙂 Or rather, in a photography site supervised by their photo editors. I am happy, very happy. I make no secret of the fact that it gave me a pleasant surprise. Here are my two fresh publications:
As I mentioned, these are very pleasant surprises, but I observed something that makes me wonder. Is it worth sacrificing our style and doing something just to get some magazine or online magazine to publish our photos? To get the grail in the form of a publication that causes some people to open their mouths and say “oh, vogue, well it must be a good photographer”? Here I am reminded of the words of a great photographer and mentor, a teacher of photography, Karol Krukowski, who once said that it is worth following what you feel and what you know, and not to model yourself after others.(And he is a great photographer, a graduate in photography, a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts, so he knows what he is saying). This is the only way to practice real art. First I had a few days to work on each of these images, I painted them with light and in processing gave them the atmosphere I wanted. And a few days ago I processed the pictures specifically to the taste of Vogue photo editors. My soul and the emotions I pour into the colors, into the image make me paint differently. This is how:
This is my painting, which, when I look at it, vibrates with color, emotion, fantasy, tonality and symbolism, this painting, and not those two photos, in a huge size I want to hang on the wall of my studio, which, when I have it one day, will be drowned in the chiaroscuro of the sun, in the glare of the leaves of the trees, in the warmth of the afternoon versus the coolness of the purple blues in the morning or from the evening. As you can see, my image is quite different from the photo that the photo editors of Vogue.IT liked. I think the most important thing in photography is the soul, and as Charles says – the most important thing is to be inspired by what’s in our hearts, not by the current trend in this or that editorial. I’m confident in my colors and it would be fun to talk to these photo editors about why they like this way of processing and not another. Of course, there are a lot of great photographers whose work appears on the pages of Vogue.italia, and it’s worth knowing them – but then there’s the trap of not following your heart, but starting to imitate others. There are some interesting photos on the pages of Vogue Italia in the photography section. But is it worth doing everything including giving up one’s style, discarding all knowledge of art, just to get some “stamp”? In my opinion, no.
To sum up: what makes us have our unique style is a thorough knowledge of painting and its history, the same with photography, and work – analysis of one’s colors, framing, processing, and above all heart and emotions, sensitivity in life and how we look at the world. I consider following my heart to be essential in photography, painting, poetry or any field of art. Although it is known – if something is done for clients – then we listen to their guidance.
Certainly then there will be those who will shout, “this is not the way to sing”. 🙂 But about that in the next episode 🙂 I already invite you to the next entry, it can be interesting 🙂
By the way, one more Vogue award-winning photo from a shoot with Ms. W 🙂 of this year:
