The height from which Kowalski photographs and the shape of the landscape often lend an abstract and unreal character to his works; it’s not easy to identify exactly what they show. Especially since the author himself doesn't label his photos.
The contemporary viewer of art is often indolent, he’s given the description of an artwork which is often followed by an interpretation and a suggestion regarding what he’s supposed to think about it. I’d rather leave the viewer without this information.
Kowalski’s photographs from the Side Effects series will be showcased from 26th March 2015 at the Leica Gallery Salzburg in Austria and later, in April, at The Curator Gallery in New York. Subsequently, Kowalski’s pieces will travel to Vienna and Moscow. In Poland, works from the Side Effects series were presented in January 2014 in Leica Gallery Warszawa. An album with Kowalski’s photographs has also been published.
Kacper Kowalski was born in 1977. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Gdańsk University of Technology, and he now works for the British Panos Pictures agency. His works have previously been awarded by the jury of World Press Photo before: in 2014 for the Toxic Beauty series and in 2008 for the A Day on the Beach photo series showing the same part of a beach at different times of the day.
During his flights, the photographer finds himself in unusual situations. He recalls how a few years ago, after a few hours of flying, he landed his paraglider in an unknown spot:
I landed on a small green meadow, squeezed between grain fields. It was July, before the harvest. Two cows were pasturing there, and an older man stood beside them. When I wanted to ask him where I was, he approached me and said 'Here I am.' I replied: 'It’s nice to meet you. But where am I?'. He said we were somewhere outside of Sztum. When I started to get myself together he asked. 'Well OK, but what is going to happen now?'. I, disoriented: 'What is supposed to be happening?'. And the man replied: 'I am so very old, so I’m waiting. And I was very happy to see that it’s the ones from above, not from below, who came for me'. – I assured him it’s not time for such definitive issues yet. And so he said: 'Oh yes, ok. The bus stop is over there.'
Nearly 5.7 thousand photographers, photojournalists and documentalists from all over the world has sent 97 912 works for this year’s edition of World Press Photo. The list of 42 photographers from 17 countries, awarded in the eight categories, was announced on 12th February.
Source: PAP, edit. K.K., transl. Agata Dudek 03/03/15.