Interview: Photographer Marianna Peruń-Filus (Poland)

I am a Polish photographer living in Krakow. Even as a child, I was interested in photography. It was presented as an element of family history and I enjoyed looking at the colorful photographs in albums and magazines. I studied architecture, and while I was a student I began to work with a photographer as a stylist and producer of fashion photography. I did that for almost 20 years and recently finished that project, ready to move on to others. During this time, I photographed landscapes as a hobby to capture moments of my travels. In my photographs, I was trying to show the quiet and calm in atmospheric places, far away from noise. I was always sensitive to the beauty of nature and energy of open spaces. For me, small towns and villages have the magic of places where time has stopped. I prefer silent places and I like when silence is expressed in the photograph. Two years ago I began my journey in portraiture, and from the very beginning, I have tried to approach it in this way. I like portrait sessions based on the elements, especially themes of water, air, and open spaces with motifs of wood and plants, and a dream-like atmosphere. Because of the beauty of places and nature, I prefer outdoor sessions and seek to express a relationship between human and nature. For this reason, I love working with models who also appreciate nature and feel a special connection to it. I like to capture women who are light, natural and authentic. I also adore the unusual beauty of my models, and tend to look for truth and emotion in the women I photograph. I like to get to know them a little bit before a session. When I prepare for a session, I often choose props and colors that complement the nature of my model, but that also relate to my soul. The portraits I take have to belong to both the model and myself. This is why I refer to photograph women. Even when I do a short session, I try to capture something more than a portrait: the atmosphere of the place where we are meeting, the feeling of the moment, an unspoken story, something that unfolds inside of me when I am shooting and when I am editing. These are not things that I plan before a session but that happen spontaneously when the relationship with a model has been established and the space and atmosphere align. The rest is worked out when I choose the right shots and edit them. I have a small portrait photography studio, but I mainly use it in the winter season. I create photographs both out of passion and professionally. I use Nikon cameras, and I have a set of lenses of different lengths that I choose according to the present moment and theme. I am mainly a self-taught artist, however I took some lessons from a friend photographer. Additionally, I learned from Dorota Gorecka, and her style of editing photos influences my finished work. In photography and in daily life, colors and their symbolism are important to me. I like a limited color palette, where the colors are subdued and complement the meaning of the picture. Photography is my passion, a way to explore and express myself. It gives me the power to grow, and happiness in creating and meeting new people. I love it