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A Buddhist monk in Bodhgaya, India. Bodhgaya is a town in Bihar state, India where Buddha experienced enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Direct descendant of the original tree grows next to Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya until today. More color images from Bodhgaya here
Two weeks ago I’ve been in Calais, France working on illegal immigrants story.
Calais is the meeting point of illegal immigrants mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and Somalia. They spend months, sometimes years traveling clandestinely to Europe. Calais is on the edge of English Channel ,the migrants try to get in the trucks which cross the channel and travel secretly to their dreamland- the UK. Of course this is not an easy task…
There was a refugee camp in the nearby Sangette, but it was closed in 2002. So now there is around 1500 illegal migrants from Asia and Africa camping in makeshift slums and huts in the woods around Calais. They have no access to water or health facilities.
The easy part of the job was obviously to shoot free food distribution at the place where everyone takes photographs. My goal was to shoot the pictures of migrants trying to get to trucks.
After arrival, I teamed up with a BBC TV crew. They were working on the immigrants story as well. It was just safer to work together. First, we went to shoot in “the jungle” – a no-go area in the middle of the woods where illegal immigrants have their slum city.
This area is not safe… last August a woman student of journalism was gang-raped there, she wanted to do an interview…
Then the tricky part came…
We were shooting the images from the car. As soon as the migrants recognized that we were filming they started throwing stones at us, so we changed our car and one more time managed to approach them without being recognized. It was fun, but it was a bit scary as well.
BBC illegal immigrants story HERE
Here are some photos from series that I've shot in November/December 2008 during pre-Christmas sales. I have hundreds of them and I am planning to make an online gallery with this pictures.
Most of them were shot in so-called “designer outlet” in the Netherlands. Designer outlet is basically a place where people, who can’t really afford it, buy expensive clothes.
I went there couple of times to shoot and I was cought… I have bought myselfa blouse…
Zdjecia z designer outletu w Holandii, mam ich baaaaardzo duzo. Fotografowałem kilkakrotnie na przelomie listopada i grudnia. Wszystko robilem na filmie. No i tez stalem się ofiara wyprzedazy- kupilem sobie bluze…
Over a month ago I have received a call from polish edition of National Geographic. They were looking for a cover picture for Polish issue of NG. The topic was Voodoo. I have send them my images, they chose one of mine and designed four covers –one with my picture and three others with somebody else’s pictures. The magazine is out now, unfortunately not with my picture in the coverL Disappointing… but I also must admit that the cover picture that they have chosen is really great!
One of the greatest things about being a photographer is that you meet persons that normally you wouldn’t have a chance to meet. Over a month ago, I have been on an assignment for a French costumer. My job was to shoot some portraits of Auschwitz Birkenau Nazi death camp photographer Wilhelm Brasse.
Wilhelm Brasse was a Auschwitz Birkenau prisoner number 3444. Before II world war he worked in Katowice, Poland as a portrait photographer. After imprisonment in Auschwitz, he was ordered to photograph prisoners at work, medical experiments of Doctor Mengele and portraits of prisoners for the files. Brasse worked at the Nazi death camp from 1940 to 1945.
I had a rare chance to listen to his story.
…..
Miesiąc temu dostałem zlecenie od klienta z Francji by sportretować Wilhelma Brasse- słynnego fotografa z Auschwitz. Brasse przed wojną pracował w jednym z Katowickich zakładów fotograficznych jako portrecista. W trakcie II Wojny Światowej został wzięty do niewoli i osadzony w Auschwitz. Tam na rozkaz SS dokumentował eksperymenty doktora Mengele i robił zdjęcia do archiwów obozu koncentracyjnego. Prawie wszystkie prace, które można zobaczyć w muzeum Auschwitz są jego autorstwa.
The trip to France was a success. To my surprise, I have made 150% of my basic plan but I must admit I had a lot of luck. I am going to post some pictures from the trip soon, when I fisnish the edit. ………… Udało się! Zrobiłem więcej niż przypuszczałem , że się uda :-) Jak skoncze obróbke I edycje materiału to pokaże jakąś część na blogu. A tymczasem… Koniakowskie majtki z koronki :-)
From my archive: Koniakow, Poland: G-strings lace makers at work; from left Elzbieta Kukuczka 43, Anna Barska 47, Krystyna Gajzer 48. In remote village of Koniakow, Poland. Koniakow is famous for its traditional lacing. Lace makers who used to create gowns and altar cloths for customers such as the late Pope or for the Queen of England now craft G-strings and other lingerie for sale all over the world. The company that started producing the lace underwear was founded by Malgorzata Stanaszek from Koniakow. She noticed that traditional gowns were not selling well. First, she started making lace underwear by herself, now she employs 60 lace makers.
