Photographer: Marcin Sokołowski

from Issue75 - September 2021

Model: Alisson Nina

Can you tell us a little about you? I was born and grew up in Bialystok, Poland. This area has been multicultural for a few hundred years as there live people of Pol ish, Belarussian, Lituanian and even Tatars roots a nd this his-tor y "infected" my mind :) Now I live and work in W arsaw, a place full of different people from all ov er Poland and the world. And I like that. My other passions a re diving and travelling. I prefer fine art, nude a nd portrait photography, but also like landscape and street pho tography.

How and when did you get into photography? I was always interested in pictures, photos tellin g some stories, fantasy art, but I didn't take photos myself. It ch anges as my son was born and I wanted to document h ow he grew up. I bought a camera and my sister gave me so me books about photography. And so it started :)

What does photography mean to you? On the one hand I can create pictures which I coul d not paint or draw. On the other hand it lets me see the world more lik e children do - I look for and see beautiful and in teresting things in ever yday life. Today's life is rather fas t and photography lets me stop for a moment and val ue the world around me.

Please briefly describe your photography style for our readers. I'm not sure if I have one style, I like both bw and color photography and to tr y different things. So, maybe freestyle, that's me ;)

Where do you get inspiration from? Books, songs, paintings, movies, photographs, the world around me. Stories people tell since people exist.

“The Sacrifice” Model: Marysia Plenzler IG: @miss_gingerness

Do you think in advance what you want in the pictur e? I have rather a general idea not an exact picture. An d on the location this idea changes sometimes into a differe nt one :)

Studio, on location or both? I prefer location, it often gives me new ideas, but also studio from time to time.

“Shadow is Her Habit” Model: Alicja Oręziak https://www.maxmodels.pl/modelka-alivio.html Would you consider yourself a hobbyist or a paid pr ofes-sional? I'm a hobbyist, I earn money as an heir tracer and genealogist - histor y "infected" my as I told :)

What has been your most memorable session and why? I don't have such one session, most sessions I did were worth remembering as I met interesting and creative people. Once I took a photo of a bridge in Warsaw, it was h idden in the fog and I found it beautiful. With some doubts I decided to send this photo to National Geographic Photo Com peti-tions and... this photo was awarded. That was the f irst time I thought that hmmm... maybe my photo can be liked no t by my family members only :)

Nikon or Canon? Favorite lens? I started my photo-journey with Nikon and stayed by it. I often use 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70mm 2.8 but have also good experiences wit h 70-300mm 4.5-5.6. And I like to take photos with my mo bile phone too, it's always by me and I took some good s treet or landscape photos with it.

What is one piece of advice you would like to offer a new photographer looking to start their own business? Pho-tography is my passion, but not my job, so I'm rath er not the right one to give such advice. I can say that do i t with pas-sion, prepare for hard work, learn from loss and... do not give up.

What do you think of our new magazine? I like it, it's a ver y interesting place where you can find different type s of artis-tic creativity. Most interesting for me is photogr aphy of course :) I think it's great that it's a place wher e people could present their works and how they see the world arou nd us.

Facebook, website: https://35photo.pro/maarew | https://w w w.deviantart.com/maarew | https://w w w.maxmodels.pl/fotograf-maarew.html , instagram: @maarew_photo and @maarew_world