Michał Dąbrowski, Culture.pl: Do you consider yourself to be more of a manager or a curator?
Krzysztof Candrowicz: Today I definitely fulfill an artistic function more often than that of an organiser or executor. In Hamburg, I am an artistic director, in Arles, I am one of the four curators in the Discovery section, and in Łódź, I combine the two functions – apart from building the programme with Alison Nordström and Agata Zubrzycka, I also have many purely organisational and executive duties.
What was it like when you began to organise the Fotofestival?
At first we didn't have the position of an artistic director. We were an informal group of cultural activists interested in photography, so we were also a programme council for ourselves. While organising the first editions, we kept on learning new things, because we would take care of everything ourselves, including the production of displays. We are the oldest Polish festival, Kraków started after us. When we began, there were only four photographic festivals across Europe.
How did these festivals transform the photographic market?
The last decade has been a period of intense development. Today, we have several festivals, a well developed education, great publishers. The festivals made possible an integration of the photographic milieu and the discovery of new artists.
You began as a group of passionates, and today you are inviting a curator from the United States to collaborate with you.
I think it's a natural way for things to develop. Everything usually starts with an idea. The next phase is a spontaneous "let's do it". A few people appear, who try to do something without the aid of any institutions and with minimal means. When it comes to us, for three years, we were organising the festival mainly with the help of the Łódź University, other sponsors did not appear until later.
For every project, however, there comes a time when you have to ask yourself about the future, and about satisfaction.
How did the Fotofestival develop?
After the first sucessful editions we wanted to have a space of our own. The way towards convicing city authorities that the photographic festival is an important event on the scale of the entire country was long, but we succeeded.
You also learned from others.
Yes. There are two large networks of photographic festivals. Festival of Light is an international association founded in the United States, in Houston. It brings together about 25 festivals from across the world. Fotofestival joined the lot in 2006. Earlier, in 2004, we created a European network, called Fotofestival Union. The first meeting took place in 2004 in Łódź. Every year, we meet at one of the European events. After some years, I can now say that this has had a big significance for the visibility and the position of our festival in Europe.
Doesn't it make the festivals alike?
It's hard to find two events similiar to each other. Some concentrate on documentary photography, others on artistic work. Their scale is also different. The biggest ones are the Parisian Mois de la Photo and the festival in Moscow, which have budgets in the millions. Apart from the money, there are also cultural and social reasons for organising a Greek festival differently to a festival in Sweden.
You also visit the Oracle curators' conferences.
Every year, we meet in a different place for several days of conferences. In this network, one can meet directors of many museums, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art, but there are also heads of publishing companies, and editors. It is a very differentiated group of curators and critics of photography.
What is your role in Arles?
The core of the Łódź festival is the Grand Prix section, while in Arles it is the exhibitions organised under the Discovery banner. Every year, different curators are invited from across the world, who are to designate photographic discoveries. This year, I am one among four such people. The purpose is to show photographers of whom the wide public is not quite aware. I pointed out Anna Orłowska and Shilo – a group of photographers from Ukraine. This display is a promotional springboard – Arles is visited by a few thousand people every year.