I Am a Woman and I Feast on Memory is different from your earlier projects. You decided to give up typology. Why?
From my point of view, this project doesn’t differ from the rest of my work at all. It has simply assumed a different form. I'm still working with typology, but now I’m creating it myself. It’s not typology defined by society, as was the case with my previous projects. This time I held a casting to look for American women who were physically similar to me. It was an attempt to find a group of women to which I myself could belong. I constantly observe women exploit various elements of pop culture or their environment to build their identity. I Am a Woman and I Feast on Memory is a natural continuation of my exploration, a pause and meditation on these processes. But here I direct the lens at myself, or rather a representation of myself, to illustrate the mechanism of transformation. We are constantly subject to change, transformation, reshaping. This is the essence of this project.
You talk about the meaning of your works in a very conscious manner. Where does this intellectual nerve come from?
I was educated in the States, at Yale University. Judith Butler graduated from the same school and is still frequently invited there. Yale was also where she wrote Gender Trouble in the 1990s. I encountered her not only as a student, but also as a woman in general. I attended some meetings with her and she’s certainly one of the people who has influenced me greatly and in some way shaped my thinking about the world. I am deeply interested in feminism and gender and these concepts serve as a sort of fuel for my work. So my intellectual nerve stems from curiosity and the fact that I plumb the subject matter since it drives me to create images.
You frequently call yourself a director. What does this mean – how do you direct your works?
My photographs are meticulously thought-out and slow. My models need to pose, they have to remain motionless for a few seconds. Just the execution of a photograph is preceded by gaining insights which take a long time. I find out a lot of things about my heroines, sometimes revolving around very personal matters. I also have a lot of commentary to offer in my works and I’ve always emphasised how crucial research is in my projects. I don’t see myself as a documentarian. I try to move between the language of creation and the language of document smoothly. I don’t feel the need to define myself as a representative of either of them.
Though creative and thought-out, your works are also critical. What is it you're wanting to criticise in each of your projects?
Despite everything, I feel my works are rather mild. They attempt to make female identity the subject of a critical approach in social and political terms and to provoke questions. I see myself as a person thinking critically. I approach the worlds I photograph analytically. It’s important for me not to depict them as caricature.
Your works seem particularly up-to-date in contemporary Poland. More and more women are in the streets protesting legislative proposals that relate to them. Do you see some identity transformations in your native surroundings?
The Black Protest [editor’s note: a series of street demonstrations against proposals to make Poland's abortion laws stricter] seems like a huge change to me. But I don’t think I can offer any general commentary on it. I can only talk about the microcosm I myself experience. Observing my family, I can see how huge the change is. Everybody's talking about women and their position, about how their identity is constructed anew. Everybody seems to have a position on it. Even people who were raised in a very traditional way are taking part in the discussion. The issue of feminism has become something discussed at the family dinner table. The subject of women has become a subject for all of society.