Talent Show: Piotr Karpinski

I just want to be happy. That is the primary reason I decided to be a photographer. It is hard for me to imagine being happy and not doing photography at all. I was always thinking of becoming one. I was like eight when I got my first camera, a Polaroid. And I quickly realized that it’s insane, mental, and absolutely genius to be able to record what your eyes can see. It is like taking a sample of a reality around you and making a copy of it — I find it crazy cool. I guess I decided on it when I realized that it was time to prepare some photography portfolio which would allow me to get a place at a university years after. It was a slow and natural process. There was no lightning burning my home and leaving only me and my camera alive.

The photo below is titled Katarimukha Mudra as Death. Mudra is a symbolic or ritual hand gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. One of the meanings of the spiritual sign of Katarimukha mudra, known as scissors, is “Death.”

What makes me different from others is the way I see stuff around me I guess. The individual perception of everything. I am a human with a mortal body like all of us. I am fascinated with Life and Death so I think of those much more than a regular person I believe. I am made of contrasts. I love contrasts in life, art and photography — visually and on a conceptual level. Introvert and extrovert in one with the entire package attached to those. I have a bipolar personality I would say — and it reflects in my work.

I feel like I am photographing ideas and concepts rather than people. I shoot pictures about Life, Death, and Time. Time is my biggest inspiration. Observing its consequences fascinates me — including Death and Life — those mixing together all the time and everywhere. What is always behind the image is a thought. Thoughts behind my photographs are my own concerns and fascinations, I use photography to record them. I depict my own states of mind when creating a picture often, even if it looks like a portrait of someone else. I am interested in memento mori as a theme in visual art and I think that it is a big part of my work as well. I like codes and metaphors — photography allows me to operate them using visual language. I am fascinated with “never”, “forever” and “always”. I photograph because it’s my way of expressing myself.