Tourists in their home city
Wojtek Wieteska is one of the most popular Polish photographers. Born in 1964, he studied cinematography at the National School of Film, Television and Theater in Lodz and art history in Warsaw University and Sorbonne University in Paris.
Wieteska has been traveling around the world since 1986. His journeys to Australia, North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Japan and the U.S. were always an inspiration for photographic projects. Among them the most popular are: “Paris – Decline,” “A Man Without Propriety,” “Far West,” “Tokyo” and the most recent one – “NYC#2.” He had solo exhibitions in the Center of Japanese Art and Technology Manggha in Krakow and the Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. Wieteska is also well known for his fashion photos made for the best Polish daily papers and journals.
In Pauza Gallery we can see a series of photos made especially for Agata Passent’s book “Stacja Warszawa” (Warsaw Station). It’s a selection of her weekly articles that she has been writing for PiN Radio. Most of her texts concern everyday life in the Polish capital.
Warsaw is no ordinary city. Asked for the essence of the city, Agata Passent answered that although she lives and works there, it constantly slips away.
Warsaw is full of contrasts. It is ugly, gray and at the same time modern and stunning. That’s why it was so difficult to photograph. What’s more, Wieteska said that it was a big challenge just to cover the distance to places and situations that one experiences every day.
Wieteska’s aim was not to make a classical reportage which reveals the poverty or the disorder of the capital’s architecture. This project departs from his previous style; it’s less conceptual and more varied. The artist took photos of a chimney sweep as well as nostalgic views of Vistula’s riverside.
Agata Passent is a journalist, columnist and writer. Her mother was Agnieszka Osiecka, a Polish poet, journalist, and songwriter. Her father, Daniel Passent, is a journalist who studied in Warsaw, Leningrad, and at Princeton University and Harvard University in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1959 he has been working for the political weekly “Polityka,” interrupted only by stays abroad. Between 1997 and 2002, Passent served as a Polish ambassador to Chile. Their daughter Agata graduated from Harvard University and Warsaw University. Her style is concentrated on lifestyle topics and avoids politics. It’s full of irony and jokes. Since 1997, next to Krystyna Kofta and Olga Lipinska, she has had her own column in “Twoj Styl,” the most popular women’s journal in Poland.
Together, Wojtek Wieteska and Agata Passent have created an original combination – a book in which intelligent and brilliant texts of one of the most fashionable columnists are mixed with sensual and unique photos. We can read about a cold winter morning while admiring a picture of a snowy car’s windscreen. We can read about a new trend called Holming next to a photo of a girl sitting behind the counter of a sushi bar. Like Passent’s topics, Wieteska’s photos are about ordinary life, but their literary and artistic skills make them really special.