Featured Photographer - December

For some time now I have been interested in exploring the medium of photography in a way that uses all of its advantages. There are so many rules and perceptions about what photography is supposed to be, and I wanted to re-invent it, taking it beyond its usual function of capturing reality. I wanted the results to be unpredictable and thought-provoking. By accident I exposed my film twice and the results were mesmerizing. It took a while to understand what was happening in each picture and I liked that. A quick glance wasn’t enough, you had to look for details and put them all together like a puzzle. From there, I decided to take it further.

This project is the result of this experimentation and exploration of a technique that was new to me - double exposure on film. I thought it could give me a lot of new opportunities to capture emotions and other abstract concepts like memory and dreams. The multi-layered, sometimes blurred and unclear images had the power of showing things we usually have to use our imagination for. Using film was a very important part of the project as it gave me less control over the results. As a perfectionist I found that very hard, but I wanted to push myself and work outside of my comfort zone. The process taught me to embrace imperfections and not to be afraid to fail, because failure can be the beginning of something completely new and unexpected. I intend to continue developing the project, experimenting with different ways of layering images and creating a narrative. I would also like to try working with text and turning it into a bookwork.

~ AK

Anita Kwiecien is a 21-year-old, Wroclaw-based young artist and photographer currently studying Photography in Manchester, UK. Still exploring the medium, she leans towards portraiture, fashion and artistic photography, with a keen interest in human nature.

To see more of her work, visit: http://www.anitakwiecien.com/