Biography: Photographer Gosia Tomicka (Poland)
My name is Gosia Tomicka, known better as Ultramarine Photography. I live in Pabianice in the centre of Poland.
I studied tapestry and artistic fabric in an Art School. I used to connect my future strictly with painting. Photography appeared in my life when I was a teenager, but I was rather aloof towards it. It was painting that I loved back then and I started joning the two with time.
At first my photography was just a hobby- it was mostly macrophotography. In fact I fell in love with photography when I switched from nature to architecture. Industrial architecture to be more specific. This is how my love for the photo camera started. For many years abandoned buildings were my favourite topic and means of artistic expression.
I grew up in an industrial city so it is natural environment for me, which has interested and fascinated me ever since I was a child. As I love travelling, sightseeing and photographing has always been my uttermost pleasure. I mostly shot in my area, but with time I got fascinated by the magic of Silesia. It is there that I began to seriously develop my skills as a photographer by experimenting with lenses and editing, thinking about the frames and light. I consider this time crucial to my career as I learnt a lot. At first my works were monochromatic - black and white. Yet, with time I realised that deep inside I am into details and and crazy about colours. I noticed that my work lacked colours – you couldn’t see the paint peeling off the walls or beautiful tints formed by light refleted by colourful glass. And as I had always focused on such details I decided to let them finally take over in my work. I ‘soaked into colour’.
Years passed, I visited a variety of abandoned places – not only factories, but also manor houses or palaces - and I started to consider adding models to my work. I had refused it before as not really ‘my thing’, but at this stage the idea started to seem agreeable.
I decided to give working with models a go. My style is rather specific. Raised on old movies, historical dramas with beautiful setting I never liked plain photos with just a model wearing modern clothes and not much in the background. I have always loved fairy tales, the magic of image, the supernatural. There is a special place in my heart for Victorian fashion and everyting called retro. I am a huge fan of corsets, stockings, heavily embroidered dresses, elaborate details and lace. That is why I knew that my portraits must be coherent with my taste in order to be true. It is important for me to show my vision through photgraphy. At first my photos were rather dark and gloomy, often gothic with fantasy figures incorporated in them. Later I started creating more romantic images. To tell the truth – I like both my ‘gothic’ and womanly side and I do my best to make sure the photos are full of variety even if most of them are heavily styled. Looking at my work you can feel the mystery and see models dressed in heavily embroidered dresses emerging from the mist or wandering around ruins, castles or palaces. You can also see feminine and delicate photos with models surrounded by flowers or antique furniture dressed in gauzy dresses. There are also more budoir shoots full of lace, corsets and tulle. I like to take the viewers back in time. My photos often tell a story and I want people who see them to feel as if they were looking at photos from the past.
My head is constantly full of ideas and my creativity goes beyond photography, thus I am always responsible for the make up and stylization. Thanks to that I can create the characters and make them a part of my own story. The effect of my willingness to enchant more and more is a project I have created together with my friend Amelia. We wanted to fulfil our dreams, make our fairy tales come true and share our visions with other photographers. This is how Przystanek – fotograficzne bajania was born. It is a place full of creativity, which unites photographers willing to go beyond ‘ the common’ and create unique works of art. During our meetings I am responsible for stylizations and make up. Recently I have started designing and making folk coifs to go with specific dresses. It is all to enable the photographers to use variety of costumes and through them trigger their creativity. We travel around Poland to find magical places that would be the best bacground for our topics.
We want to invite all of you who would like to get to know us and take part in our fairy tales to the meetings.
