Interview: Photographer Angelika Bykowska (Poland)

Bijgewerkt op: 8 mei 2021

Tell us something about yourself.

Hi, my name is Angelika, I am 23, right now i live in Szczecin, Poland, but i Was born in smaller city in North Poland. I make a living outside of photography world. I travel a lot and free time i spend with camera.

How and when did you get into photography?

It was couple years ago, while i walked around my city i started to notice that my surrounding can show me „something”. With time i started to think, why not perpetuate it for everybody else? The best choice for this was to make a photo of this. That’s how it started in my mind. I asked my parents, can they buy me camera, and for sake of this world and their nerves they did. I made a lot of pictures, better or worse, with time i changed my subjects to living people and here it swallowed me for good, with every session it keeps swallowing me further and i don’t want to stop.

What does photography mean to you?

For me it is something special. Its important part of my life, a way to express myself and a tool to create pictures from dreams and so much more. It’s escape from reality and a way to meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world.

Please briefly describe your photography style for our readers.

I think, like you can see below, its a mix of fairy tales, a little dark most of time, full of emotions and coexistence of a human and nature, I still seek my own style. Slowly it starts to appear, I think, but with a little of time and thousand more of photos made it will see a daylight. Right now I am still experimenting and get carried away with every session.

Where do you get inspiration from?

I seek inspiration in everything thats around me. Literally. When I walk around, and look on nature I can see great frames. Some of them takes a while before I find good model, that will fit, Another I want to make right here, right now. A lot of sessions was born that way. Sometimes I see a normal bush and with a little of magic it ends with great photo.

Think you in advance what you want in the picture?

If its not spontaneous then the answer is yes. It’s just a little idea of what I can make, but almost every time I gets ahead of what I wanted. Thats what being artist means. You can get even better idea if you look around through camera. Sometimes getting in place on another hour shows something different then before, like a great light or shadow. Everybody that works with me knows that I can change concept 180 degrees and I think that’s why they like to work with me.

Studio, on location or both?

For me its open air for sure, there I feel free. I like how daylight is changing, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, but still I feel I have much more possibilities. If everything is still, sometimes you won’t even try some options, but maybe they are a lot better. Nonchematic is essence of art.

Would you consider yourself a hobbyist or a paid professional?

For now I'm a hobbyist. I just love to make photos. Through the year I do a lot of TFP projects, but from time to time I do sessions for money. Still it’s great that I can make extra money from my passion.

What has been your most memorable session and why?

I had a lot of interesting sessions. We all know that most of models are little crazy. Most of my sessions was made in water and I remember one time when I wanted to do a photo while sitting on tree that had branches over the water (it was a perfect place for my vision). Unfortunately the current was too strong, so models couldn’t stand still. Clothes were everywhere and they started to drift in different directions, everyone laughed and had a lot of fun. When we did what we wanted I found another problem. I couldn’t get off the tree. My legs wouldn’t let go of a branch and I was dangling like koala until I fell to the water.

What has been the biggest source of inspiration in your work?

Like I said before: everything is inspiration if you know how to look, but most of all I love nature and emotions that comes from people. I like that moment when I look at photo and you can see that model was happy and I know that while we were shooting he had hard times to stop laughing. I hope that viewers can see that too.

Nikon or Canon? Favorite lens?

I started with Nikon, I still have that one, but lately I bought my new baby Sony. I highly recommend that brand too, even if it’s not in the race. For the second part of question most of my photos were made with Nikon 35 1.8f, right now I am testing Planar 50 1.4f, I think it creates images from fairy tails.

What is one piece of advice you would like to offer a new photographer looking to start their own business?

You need to do what you feel and don’t forget to express yourself. Sometimes it’s good to get lost, experiment, try, evolve and try something that nobody tried before. Look outside the frames.

What do you think of our new magazine?

I saw it not too long ago, some of my friends has publications in it. I think its great idea for less known artists to show their work.

https://www.facebook.com/AngelikaBykowskaFotografia/