Summer Stories #13

The idea behind the photo series “Our summer stories” came to existence after my three-year break – the maternity leave. . I love to work with light and facial, and physical expressions. This is my first conceptual project since my return to work: I am mother of three, wife of a visual artist and our entire environment we live in is predestined for creation of memories and artworks. The story captures the everyday life of our family in summer 2013… Water, clouds and emotions are the key elements of those photographs… The story of a family with Stella, the eldest daughter, Oliver, the middle son and the youngest son Alan. Their first trip to the sea, first sand and saltwater, summer holidays spent in the garden and the impression of spectacular holidays felt also at home. My children are already used to it – if I see something beautiful, I am taking photos immediately, it is just a moment, a matter of seconds … When pressing the trigger of the camera, I know well ahead how the resulting picture will look like. It is hard to capture and depict the mood of children, the younger those babies are, the harder it is; cooperation with them is complicated… On the other hand, only children are able to come up with such fabulous things. They are the creators of the scene itself. We – I as the mother along with their father – were present in the whole story as guardians and initiators of fun. In case of some scenes, it was important to prepare appropriate conditions also at the expense of (and in anticipation of) “collateral damages”, though in the end, those damages were beneficial to the photograph itself. This summer was fantastic: every day a new story, new knowledge and a new good shot for me.