Interview: Insta-legend Mustache Lens

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Casting Warsaw in a new, atmospheric light, this month we settle in for a moonlit chat with Insta legend Mustache Lens…

WI: Most of your images are captured at night – what do you love about working in the dark evening hours?

ML: The sight of light emerging from the darkness fascinates me – things like lanterns, illuminated subway entrances, shop windows, office lights, etc. When these are juxtaposed against the darkness you can get incredible results. Besides, I always want to learn how to take pictures that draw people in and lend a new perspective on things.

Do you plan your shoots or are your photos taken spontaneously?

Originally they were totally spontaneous. Recently, however, I’ve started creating shoot lists in my head and using friends as models or heading to pre-determined locations. On my Insta, you’ll definitely now find a few photos that are more ‘arranged’.

What are you shooting with and what’s your post-production process?

I’ve got a Sony A7III camera and use Tamron and Samyang lenses. All the editing, meanwhile, is done in Lightroom. I spend quite a lot of time editing, but I absolutely love doing it – especially when the results come close to what I’d first imagined. As the saying goes, you can do the impossible right away, but you need to wait a little longer for miracles!

In your mind, what makes a beautiful photo?

It’s all about capturing the moment. The most beautiful thing about an image is the ‘moment’ and the way we perceive it. Each of us has a different point of view, and that’s what the most beautiful thing of all is.

What do you love about photographing Warsaw – what makes the city such a good model?

“Besides, I always want to learn how to take pictures that draw people in and lend a new perspective on things.”

It’s a city that doesn’t have a specific mood. Warsaw’s a patchwork city that really inspies. The contrasts, for instance in the city’s architecture, generate a unique atmosphere and then you’ve got the various lights, trams, metro stops, etc.

Do you have any favorite secret little places in Warsaw that you like to shoot?

Well, they’re not secret and they’re not small, but I really enjoy shooting photos around Rondo ONZ and Daszyńskiego – they remind me of London and Rotterdam, two cities that I really enjoy and try to visit as regularly as possible. I’m trying to get to know Warsaw all the time. I’ve been here for three-years now, but even so I’m still discovering new things every now and again.

We’re assuming, by the way, that you’re a pro photographer?

Ha, maybe when I grow up! I started photographing when I was a kid – whilst my friends were getting bikes, I was asking for cameras. True, I gave up photography for a while, but true love never dies. I picked up photography again last year and since then me and my camera have lived happily ever after!

Finally, what’s in the name: Mustache Lens?

The Lens bit is self-explanatory, but Mustache is a modified version of my surname – none of my English-speaking friends could ever pronounce my surname so I changed it a little to make it easier for them to say. Hopefully, I think Mustache Lens is quite original.

For more on Mustache Lens, check: instagram.com /mustache_lens

A wedding photographer and computer specialist by profession, Mariusz Zając has become one of Poland’s best-known colorizers of historical pictures. Specializing in the inter-bellum period, his stunning images of pre-war Warsaw have won him admirers around the world…

Have you been surprised by the reaction to your work?

In most cases it’s positive, especially if you use ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ as a benchmark. Of course, there are negative comments, but these are few and far between and mainly from people who believe that historical photos shouldn’t be colored.

Do they have a point?

They claim that images lose their ‘atmosphere’ when colored. I answer them by saying that my colorizations do not mean that the originals have been removed from the public sphere. Some think that my artistic vision isn’t in accordance with historical truth, but I think I’m providing a service by giving viewers a choice.

You’ve won a huge following, but it turns out you haven’t even been coloring for long?

That’s right. I made coloring debut in February 2020. My first photos and film though received great feedback and it was then that I realized there wasn’t much competition. That’s partly why I decided to throw myself into coloring and expand my knowledge.

How accurate are you colors?

Like all colorizations, they’re part of the artistic vision of the creator. Even now, there’s no way to work out what the actual color was in a monochromatic photograph.

So, now for the nerd talk – how do you color these images in the first place?

First of all I use a program called deOldify - but that relies on neutral network algorithms which means that every photo processed in this way will tend to look the same no matter what it actually shows. In order to improve my colorization results I therefore then use my own techniques to give a different color expression. These tools are based on AI algorithms that I’ve created using my computer know-how. The coloring process isn’t actually all that different, but because I’ve found my own methods my images look different to the others on the market. It’s great to hear that viewers often

can’t tell if the colors are original or not.

What do you look for when choosing which photos to color?

The coloring process has several stages and a lot depends on the quality of the initial photo. The photographs I color must have a certain minimum scan and image quality and I asses these individually based on past experience. If a photo falls below these quality specifications I have to leave it as I know the results won’t be realistic. There’s a lot of very interesting archival images that I would love to color but simply can’t because they’re not of sufficient quality.

Assuming an image is of good resolution and quality, what happens next? How time consuming is this?

Coloring one photo can take anything between thirty minutes to three or four-hours. AI algorithms aren’t good at colorizing crowds, for instance, so these demand extra work. It’s also important to spend time finding color references for essential

“Essentially, my works will be brought to life in a way that I hope will make it the most captivating multimedia exhibition that Warsaw has seen to date”

elements. For example, one time I colored Marshal Piłsudski and got the shade of his sash wrong – straight away people were writing in to tell me that these ceremonial sashes had different colors.

How is the world of colorists changing?

The development of AI algorithms over the last couple of years have been incredible. What was impossible not long back has already become possible and this progress has completely redefined many basic concepts that apply to photography and graphics. To digitally enlarge a photo it would deteriorate in quality, but now it will no longer lose significant quality. I’ve no doubt that

what we consider to be unthinkable now will soon have an answer – and to be honest, I’m not even talking about photography alone. I’m convinced that what we perceive to belong in the realms of science fiction will soon become reality.

Ever since premiering, your work has gone viral…

My first forays into photo and film colorization were widely publicized in the media and ever since then I’ve had some really interesting opportunities. Looking ahead, I’m really excited that I’ve got a multimedia exhibition of my work coming up in the Norblin factory complex.

Tell us more!

I’ve met many interesting people thanks to my work, and one of those is Joanna Kowalkowska of the Art Box Experience in Norblin. She contacted me about holding an exhibition and I simply assumed it would be the kind of classic exhibition that doesn’t interest people much anymore: pictures hanging on a wall. To be honest, that didn’t arouse much enthusiasm on my part, but then she started telling me more about it and I realized it had nothing in line with our traditional perception of an exhibition. The project will use my colorized photos and films and, thanks to state-of-the-art laser digital projections, will calibrate them to create a seamless exhibition of 800 sq/m. Essentially, my works will be brought to life in a way that I hope will make it the most captivating multimedia exhibition that Warsaw has seen to date.

For sure, lots of people would love to experiment with coloring themselves – what advice would you give to a novice?

There’s lots of quick-fix online tools but although many are quite reliable you do sometimes find errors in the interpretation of an image. For instance, you might find a program coloring trees green when, in fact, they should be a different color as the photo was taken in autumn. To correct these kind of things you have no choice but to befriend Photoshop. Simultaneously, I’d tell beginners to acquaint themselves with the theory of color in painting – that’s important so that you learn how to choose colors consciously rather than by accident. Lastly, I’d recommend that people familiarize themselves with color correction and color grading.

The Art Box Experience

Set to open on March 19th, the Art Box Experience is being hyped as an immersive exhibition and event center that will allow visitors to travel back in time inside the Norblin Factory. Titled Retro Warsaw, the first exhibition will be based upon digitally reconstructed archival materials that will take people back to Warsaw’s inter-bellum: thanks to a pioneering 360 projection system, visitors will find themselves drawn inside the unique atmosphere of the era.

Breathing new life into this distant past, the authors of the project have revived a lost world with their project giving people the opportunity to march alongside a military parade, view a car race or which in awe as a skyscraper is constructed. But, so they say, prepare also to meet the city’s everyday residents. “On the streets, at the bust stop, in the shops or inside the old Norblin factory.” Promising to be like nothing Warsaw has ever seen before, tickets and further info can be found at: artboxexperience.com