He graduated in cinematography from the PWSFTviT in Łódź in 1980.
He started work as a cinematographer making documentaries with Bogdan Dziworski. He has worked on feature films with directors such as Grzegorz Królikiewicz, Andrzej Barański, Wojciech Marczewski, Filip Bajon, Jan Jakub Kolski.
Krzysztof Ptak is also a cinematographer for commercials and music videos. He is a computer graphic artist, and works in post-production and special effects as well.
Krzysztof Ptak has received awards for his camera work, including the "Eagle" Polish Film Award twice, for Historia kina w Popielawach / History of Cinema in Popielawy (for 1998), and for Weiser (for 2001). In 2001 he was awarded a Tytan for the best commercial at the National and International Festival of Commercials and Advertising in Krakow for the film Rozmowy Miedzynarodowe [International Calls].
Krzysztof Ptak, photo: Robert Krzyżewski / Forum On the Polish film market, Krzysztof Ptak, one of the better known and valued cinematographers of the middle generation, is certainly among the leaders of conscious and even enthusiastic participation in the electronic revolution that has been taking place in cinema in recent years, involving the popularisation of digital technology.
"The DV (Digital Video) system offers images close to television pictures in terms of resolution - very good but not perfect. This system is used mainly by non-professional makers of independent films, though Steven Soderbergh recently used it intentionally as well. The real revolution came with the HD (High Definition) system, which has nothing in common with the old HDTV{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C} (High Definition Television) used by Zbigniew Rybczynski. He used large, heavy cameras, whereas working in HD today, you can use a camera not much bigger than a cigarette packet to make pictures with double the definition, comparable in terms of technical parameters with high-class 35 mm negatives". (Krzysztof Ptak in an interview granted to Andrzej Bukowiecki, "Kino" 12/2002)
Krzysztof Ptak was one of the first people in Poland to make pictures using digital technology, much cheaper than traditional technology, and could well be the only person in the Polish film industry to truly appreciate the importance of post-production computer processing of footage.
He was the cinematographer for Pornografia / Pornography, the first Polish feature film made entirely using a High Definition camera. The action of Pornography, a film directed by Jan Jakub Kolski and based on the novel by Witold Gombrowicz, is set almost entirely at a landed estate in provincial Poland, which the director wanted to see as "a place shot through with sunlight and saturated with colour", said Krzysztof Ptak (interview granted to Piotr Bujnowski, "Film & TV. Kamera" 4/2002). As the plot unfolded, the film was supposed to become increasingly monochromatic. The technology used for the film allowed the cameraman to carry out this idea of the director's. A variable focus lens adapted for use with top-quality HD cameras allowed some scenes to be shot - as the cinematographer emphasized in the same interview - in light provided only by oil lamps.
Even before Pornography was finished, Krzysztof Ptak spoke of the film's colour concept in the above-quoted interview for Andrzej Bukowiecki:
"We start with loud colours, to dim them gradually, and come to almost nothing but black and white at the end of the film. This idea seems simple, and it originated from the fact that the world presented by Gombrowicz also undergoes reassessment, to be destroyed in the finale. The difficulty lies in gradually suppressing the colours imperceptibly to the viewer. Again, I will be helped in this by customisable image control. During post-production I will use one more advantage of digital technology over traditional technology: the possibility of regulating the saturation of each colour separately, without impacting other colours. The same goes for brightness and contrast regulation for individual parts of the image".
Krzysztof Ptak does not deny that the technology also has its disadvantages.
"Working with HD, you have to watch out for over-exposed whites from which no more detail can be extracted", he said in his interview for Piotr Bujnowski.
Before Pornography he used the same technique in the village sequence in Piotr Trzaskalski's Edi (the rest was shot in DV) as well as numerous commercials and music videos. After that came Krzysztof Krauze's My Nikifor in HD. Because the problem of economizing on film did not exist, the cinematographer often filmed Krystyna Feldman, who plays the title role, without her knowing, as he admitted in an interview published on the Internet (www.stopklatka.pl). He believes this was important to make her brilliant acting interpretation even more credible.
In Krzysztof Ptak's case, apart from the cinematography itself, its subsequent processing with the help of computer software is just as important. In another interview granted to Piotr Bujnowski ("Film & TV. Kamera" 1/2003) the cameraman recalls that he first used such software in 1994, in a Television Theatre production for children directed by Konrad Szolajski. In a feature film, the first time was a short take in Kolski's History of Cinema in Popielawy (1998) in which a falling star hits the "cinemachine" built by the main character, and an old film is shown on a cloud as if on a screen.
Krzysztof Ptak has also developed and successfully uses his own method of copying images from magnetic tape to a negative, from which a film copy is then made. This method allows him to get rid of a certain defect of digital technology, something called a plastic image - the impression of the image being artificial and immobile.
"Pictures recorded in the HD method and projected onto a screen are perfect but plastic. Viewers get a more favourable impression when the same image is transferred to a 35 mm positive, as viewers are used to the qualities of light-sensitive emulsion that suppress artificiality - grain, lower resolution". ("Kino" 12/2002)
Technology plays a huge role in the work of a cameraman as Krzysztof Ptak understands it, and one sometimes has the impression that the cinematography for his films is created in passing, as if he had little creative input.
"If you think your task is only to record the world", says Krzysztof Ptak, "without thinking about it, then you don't have to be an artist or an engineer. Technology is so developed, and negatives so tolerant, that you don't have to know how to expose as well as you once had to. You switch on the automatic option on your DV camera and you can see the world there". ("Film & TV. Kamera" 1/2003)
But he adds in the same article:
"When I am asked to do the cinematography, I think - a little selfishly - about what I can find for myself in the film. I always try to have a concept for a given film. Otherwise it is dull, at least visually".
And films with Krzysztof Ptak's cinematography are anything but dull. The directors he has worked with, including Wojciech Marczewski, director of Weiser, and Piotr Trzaskalski who made Edi, value him as a collaborator. Critic Tadeusz Sobolewski, though he was less than enthusiastic about Jan Jakub Kolski's Jasminum, saw Ptak's cinematography as suggestive, thanks to which
"you can almost smell the monastery courtyard, the duck feathers, the cobbles after the rain". ("Gazeta Wyborcza", 4 May 2006)
"Regardless of the medium on which a film is recorded, our material is always only light and shadows, and the result still depends the most on the sensitivity of the person behind the camera, not on the camera itself", is what this greatest enthusiast of the electronic revolution in Polish cinema fortunately believes. ("Kino", 12/2002)
It would be difficult to imagine a film more visually different from the arcadian, delicate Jasminum than The Dark House (2009) directed by Wojciech Smarzowski, considered one of the most important films of the decade. This dark, bitter film which tells a story set in the austere times of the martial law. It's not only a dark house: it's dirty and stale. Some of the frames could be associated with Fargo by brothers Coen and also Breughl's paintings.
"My role as a cinematographer was not the elimination of light, but its addition (there were no additional lights in the camera). Using the lenses I used underlined the impression of a depth of focus with only little light. The cameras were great and functioned wonderfully in the cold. I generally prefer digital cameras, since I believe RED is "weird" and overhyped. One has to remember size doesn't matter, but the play of light does. It's not true that film is not characterised by little depth of focus. And good films never depend on equipment - said Ptak in an interview during the Camerimage festival.
For both of these films Ptak received the Orzeł Prize for best cinematography. Another one - seventh in his career - he received for the black-and-white film Papusza, directed by Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzyszof Krauze, a story of Bronisława Wajs, first Romany poet whose poems were translated into Polish.
Papusza wouldn be as impressive if not for the amazing work by set designers and cinematographers. The film is constructed by almost unedited, static scenes. When we add momentum and visual richness worthy of great painters, during the screening we feel as if we were visiting a gallery of moving image (literally!). We watch generic scenes similar to Gierymski's paintings, epic scenes and beautiful nature, which corresponds with emotional states of the protagonists, as well as intimate portraits - wrote Łukasz Muszyński for Filmweb.
Filmography:
Etudes
- 1977 - Ciało zanurzone w cieczy traci na wadze tyle ILE waży ciecz wyparta przez to ciało [A Body immersed in Fluid Loses Weight Equal to the Weight of the Amount of Fluid It Displaces], dir. Romuald Wierzbicki
- 1977 - Tremolo, dir. Krzysztof Tchorzewski
- 1978 - Letarg [Lethargy], dir. Jerzy Tabor
- 1986 - Retour, dir. Sylvie Guedel
Short films and documentaries:
- 1977 - Prawo drogi w regatach żeglarskich [Right of Way in Sailing Regattas], dir. Bogdan Dziworski
- 1978 - Dwuboj klasyczny [Nordic Combined], dir. Bogdan Dziworski
- 1978 - Olimpiada [The Olympics], dir. Bogdan Dziworski
- 1978 - Podroz [The Journey], dir. Ryszard Lenczewski
- 1979 - Pielgrzym [The Pilgrim], dir. Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki, cinematography with Bogdan Dziworski, Jacek Mieroslawski, Jacek Petrycki, Witold Stok, Wit Dabal
- 1979 - Arena życia [Arena of Life], dir. Bogdan Dziworski, cinematography with Ryszard Lenczewski, Piotr Sobociński, Wit Dabal
- 1979 - Byc ptakiem [Being a Bird], dir. Leszek Wosiewicz
- 1979 - Taktyka regatowa [Regatta Tactics], dir. Andrzej Soroczynski, cinematography with Piotr Gawronski, Janusz Tkaczyk
- 1982 - Pergamin Konfederacji Warszawskiej 1573 [Parchment of the 1573 Warsaw Confederation], dir. Grzegorz Krolikiewicz, cinematography with Stanislaw Sliskowski
- 1983 - Akcja Vera [Operation Vera], dir. Jan Zarzycki
- 1983 - Credo, dir. Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki, cinematography with Bogdan Dziworski, Wit Dabal, Jacek Mieroslawski, Krzysztof Pakulski, Jacek Petrycki, Zygmunt Samosiuk, Jacek Siwecki
- 1983 - Gora [The Mountain], dir. Grazyna Kedzielawska, cinematography with Andrzej Adamczak
- 1983 - Najlepsza Chwila [The Best Moment], dir. Jan Zarzycki
- 1983 - Kilka opowiesci o czlowieku [Scenes from the Life of a Man], dir. Bogdan Dziworski (awards: 1983 - Krakow, Polish National Short Film Festival (PNSFF) - prize for cinematography)
- 1983 - Nocny patrol / Night Patrol, dir. Ryszard Lenczewski, cinematography with R. Lenczewski
- 1984 - Karol Szymanowski. Stabat Mater, dir. Janusz Sijka (awards: 1985 - Krakow, PNSFF - prize for cinematography)
- 1984 - Szapito, dir. Bogdan Dziworski, cinematography with Wit Dabal (awards: 1985 - Award of the Minister of Culture and Art)
1985 - Cien II [Shadow II], dir. Janusz Sijka
1985 - Portret ze slow [Portrait of Words], dir. Grazyna Kedzielawska, cinematography with Bartol Lukić - 1986 - Artysta [The Artist], dir. Pawel Woldan
- 1986 - Kostka Cukru [Sugar Cube], dir. Jacek Blawut
- 1986 - Przypadek Hermana - Palacza [The Case of Herman The Stoker], dir. Leszek Wosiewicz
- 1987 - Oferta [The Offer], dir. Grazyna Kedzielawska, cinematography with Bartol Lukić, Stanislaw Sliskowski
- 1988 - Widze [I Can See], dir. Bogdan Dziworski, cinematography with Wit Dabal (awards: 1988 - Krakow, PNSFF, prize for cinematography)
- 1993 - Rodzina [Family], Nie zabijaj [Thou Shalt Not Kill], Nie cudzoloz [Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery], Nie kradnij [Thou Shalt Not Steal], Nie mow falszywego swiadectwa [Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness], Zawisc [Envy] in Dekalog - Polska 93 [Decalogue - Poland 93], dir. Leszek Wosiewicz, part of the cinematography with Slawomir Wozniak
- 1993 - Jan Jozef Lipski, dir. Pawel Woldan, cinematography with Dariusz Panas
- 1993 - Litwo, slysze twoj glos [Lithuania, I Hear Your Voice], dir. Pawel Woldan
- 1993 - Powidok [Afterimage], dir. Pawel Woldan
- 1993 - Swiatlo w mroku [Light in the Darkness], dir. Pawel Woldan, cinematography with Piotr Wojtowicz
- 1994 - Artysta. Jerzy Kalina [Artist. Jerzy Kalina], dir. Pawel Woldan
- 1994 - Podroz [The Journey], dir. Grazyna Kedzielawska, cinematography with G. Kedzielawska, Bogdan Stachurski
Feature films
- 1979 - Tirolinka, dir. Romuald {C}Wierzbicki
- 1980 - Smak wody / Taste of Water, dir. Leszek Wosiewicz, cinematography with Wladyslaw Nagy
- 1980 - Klejnot wolnego sumienia / The Supreme Value of a Free Conscience, dir. Grzegorz Krolikiewicz (awards: 1983 - Panama, International Film Festival, prize for cinematography)
- 1981 - Fik-Mik, dir. Marek Nowicki
- 1981 - Slepy bokser [Blind Boxer], dir. Marek Nowicki
- 1982 - Wigilia '81 [Christmas Eve '81], dir. Leszek Wosiewicz
- 1984 - Zabicie Ciotki / Killing Auntie, dir. Grzegorz Krolikiewicz
- 1985 - Glod / Hunger, dir. Jacek Kowalczyk
- 1985 - Sam posrod swoich / Alone Among his Own, dir. Wojciech Wojcik
- 1986 - Pokoj Dziecinny [Children's Room], dir. Aleksander Czekanowski
- 1985 - Tabu / Taboo, dir. Andrzej Baranski
- 1986 - Inna wyspa / Other Island, dir. Grazyna Kedzielawska
- 1988 - Kornblumenbau, dir. Leszek Wosiewicz; also cameraman (awards: 1990 - Gdynia, Polish Feature Film Festival, prize for cinematography)
- 1988 - Pomiedzy wilki [Among the Wolves], dir. Juliusz Janicki
S - 1989 - 300 mil do nieba / 300 Miles to Heaven, dir. Maciej Dejczer; also cameraman (awards: 1990 - Gdynia, Polish Feature Film Festival, award of the Head of Cinematography for creative work in feature film, prize for cinematography)
- 1990 - Superwizja [Supervision], dir. Robert Glinski
1991 - Ucieczka z kina "Wolnosc" / Escape from the "Liberty" Cinema, dir. Wojciech Marczewski, cinematography with Jerzy Zielinski - 1990 - Le Retour / The Return, dir. Josée Dayan
- 1991 - Cynga, dir. Leszek Wosiewicz; also cameraman
- 1991-2000 - Istota [Being], dir. Andrzej Czarnecki, cinematography with Aleksander Antipienko
- 1992 - Kowalikowie [The Kowaliks], dir. Marek Gracz, cinematography with Stefan Czyzewski
- 1993 - Lepiej byc piekna i bogata / It is Better to be Beautiful and Rich, dir. Filip Bajon, also cameraman and graphic designer
- 1993 - The Hollow Men, dir. Joseph Kay, John Yorick
- 1995 - Lagodna / A Gentle Woman, dir. Mariusz Trelinski
- 1996 - Dzien Wielkiej Ryby [Day of the Big Fish], dir. Andrzej Baranski
- 1996 - Nocne Graffiti [Night Graffiti], dir. Maciej Dutkiewicz
- 1996 - Panna Nikt / Miss Nobody, dir. Andrzej Wajda
- 1997 - Czas zdrady [Time of Betrayal], dir. Wojciech Marczewski, also special effects
- 1997 - Geshes Gift, dir. Walburg von Yalenfes
- 1998 - Historia kina w Popielawach / History of Cinema in Popielawy, dir. Jan Jakub Kolski; also computer effects (awards: 1999 - Eagle, Polish Film Award for best cinematography, for 1998)
- 2000 - Weiser, dir. Wojciech Marczewski (awards: 2001 - Wrzesnia, "Prowincjonalia" Polish National Festival of Film Art, 2002 - Eagle, Polish Film Award for best cinematography, for 2001)
- 2000-2001 - Przeprowadzki [Moves] TV series, dir. Leszek Wosiewicz, cinematography with Piotr Sliskowski and Jacek Januszczyk
- 2002 - Edi, dir. Piotr Trzaskalski; also electronic transfer, colour correction (awards: 2002 - Gdynia, Polish Feature Film Festival, prize for cinematography; Lodz, "Camerimage" International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, Golden Frog; 2003 - Newport Beach, International Film Festival, prize for cinematography)
- 2003 - Pornografia / Pornography, dir. Jan Jakub Kolski; also colour correction (awards: 2004 - Wrzesnia, "Prowincjonalia" Polish National Festival of Film Art, prize for cinematography; Eagle, Polish Film Award for best cinematography, for 2003)
- 2004 - Moj Nikifor / My Nikifor, dir. Krzysztof Krauze; also colour correction (awards: 2005 - Lodz, "Camerimage" International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, special mention at the review of Polish films; Wrzesnia - "Prowincjonalia" Polish National Festival of Film Art, prize for cinematography; Eagle, Polish Film Award for best cinematography, for 2004)
- 2006 - Jasminum, dir. Jan Jakub Kolski
- 2006 - Nadzieja [Hope], dir. Stanislaw Mucha
- 2009 - The Dark House, dir. Wojciech Smarzowski (Eagle, Polish Film Award for best cinematography, Silver Frog at the "Camerimage" International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography
- 2009 - Aforia i pszczoły [Aforia and the Bees], dir. Jan Jakub Kolski
- 2013 - Papusza, dir. J. Kos-Krauze, K. Krauze (Eagle, Polish Film Award for best cinematography)
- 2013 - Bez tajemnic (In Treatment, HBO series), dir. A. Kazejak, J. Borcuch
- 2014 - Sąsiady, dir. Grzegorz Królikiewicz
Television Theatre productions:
- 1978 - Idea i miecz [Idea and Sword] by Bohdan Urbankowski and Grzegorz Krolikiewicz, dir. G. Krolikiewicz, cinematography with Zbigniew Pietrzkiewcz
- 1993 - Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltes, dir. Michal Kwiecinski
- 1994 - Total Eclipse by Christopher Hampton, dir. Michal Kwiecinski
- 1994 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens, dir. Jerry Flynn
- 1994 - The Nutcracker based on the ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, dir. Zbigniew Mich
- 1994 - Matka Chrzestna [The Godmother] by Robert Brutter and Mikolaj Kalisz, dir. Maciej Dutkiewicz
- 1994 - Na razie w porzadku, Mamo! [It's fine for now, Mum!] by Pawel Trzaska, dir. P. Trzaska
- 1994 - Natalia based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky, dir. Mariusz Trelinski
- 1994 - O przemyślności kobiety niewiernej. Sześć opowieści z Boccaccia wziętych [The Ingenuity of the Unfaithful Woman. Six Tales Taken from Boccaccio] by Giovanni Boccaccio, dir. Maciej Dejczer
- 1994 - O wawelskim smoku [The Wawel Dragon] by Kornel Makuszyński and Marian Walentynowicz, dir. Konrad Szolajski
- 1994 - Po tamtej stronie [On the Other Side] by Vladimir Maksimov, dir. Tomasz Zygadlo
- 1994 - Guns at Cyrano's by Raymond Chandler, dir. Filip Zylber
- 1994 - Golden Boy by Clifford Odets, dir. Maciej Dejczer
- 1995 - Don Quixote by Mikhail Bulgakov, dir. Andrzej Domagalik
- 1995 - Mirandolina by Carlo Goldoni, dir. Jan Englert
- 1995 - Mutanci [Mutants] by Semyon Zlotnikov, dir. Tomasz Zygadlo
- 1995 - The Girl Who Trod On The Loaf by Hans Christian Andersen, dir. Agnieszka Lipiec-Wroblewska
- 1995 - O Szewczyku i pieknej krolewnie [The Shoemaker And The Beautiful Princess] by Tadeusz Wierzbicki, dir. Wojciech Maciejewski
- 1995 - Pokoj do wynajecia [Room for Rent] by Anna Onichimowska, dir. Marek Gracz
- 1995 - Slowik Warszawy [Nightingale of Warsaw] by Jaroslaw Abramow-Newerly, dir. Ryszard Ber
- 1995 - Paths of Glory by Humphrey Cobb, dir. Jerzy Antczak
- 1996 - Adrienne Lecouvreur by Augustin Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé, dir. Mariusz Trelinski
1996 - Podporucznik Kize [Lt. Colonel Kize] by Ziemowit Fedecki and Andrzej Jarecki, dir. Tomasz Zygadlo - 1996 - Taking Sides by Ronald Harwood, dir. Ryszard Bugajski
- 1997 - Bajka o Bardzo Lekkim Chlebie [A Tale of Very Light Bread] by Jan Jakub Kolski, dir. J.J. Kolski
- 1997 - Krawiec / The Taylor by Slawomir Mrożek, dir. Michal Kwiecinski (awards: 1998 - Warsaw, Polish National Competition for Productions of Contemporary Polish Plays, prize for cinematography)
- 1997 - Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht, dir. Laco Adamik
- 1997 - The Dispute by Pierre Marivaux, dir. Maciej Ziembinski
- 1998 - Disneyland based on Stanislaw Dygat, dir. Filip Zylber
Also collaboration as a cameraman on:
film etudes: Romuald Wierzbicki's Waldemar (1975) and Manius Kropa (1975),
short films and documentaries: Bogdan Dziworski's Hokej [Hockey] (1976), Marek Koterski's Szczescie [Happiness] (1980), Michal Tarkowski's Koncert [The Concert] (1982),
feature films: Grzegorz Krolikiewicz's Wieczne pretensje / Permanent Objections (1975), Krzysztof Sowinski and Lech Majewski's Zapowiedź ciszy [Harbinger of Quiet] (1980).Krzysztof Ptak also carries out technical processing of film footage made by other cameramen (electronic transfer, computer effects, graphic design). He has done this kind of work on Jan Jakub Kolski's Daleko od okna / Far from the Window (2000) with cinematography by Arkadiusz Tomiak, Barbara Sass's Jak narkotyk [Like a Drug] (2001) with cinematography by Wieslaw Zdort, and for the animated cartoon series Mordziaki (1998).
Author: Ewa Nawój, August 2006, updated by NMR, May 2016.
