Moments I Never Showed You

For many years of being a natural picture maker and taking photographs of whatever caught my attention, I’ve noticed that people became a part of the landscape I create. Observing, sitting, relaxing. The images place the figure in surroundings that complement simultaneously two conditions – being and looking. This project focuses on my observations but also raises wider questions about photography as a medium and the act of observation itself. It is an attempt to look at my practice and question my selection of images in which unexpected connections and conversations can occur between images.

The body of work includes an animated scan of 35mm black and white negative. As some images remind me of either smell, sound or movement, I wanted to bring this photograph back to life by moving selected still elements.

This project has been shot in several countries, mostly outdoors and shows places I don’t belong to and people I have never got to meet, and as such, it is a departure from previous work that had nostalgia, homesickness and belongs at its heart. However, in some ways, the photographs still speak about loneliness identity - I photographed people from their back, usually on their own, so it could be everyone. Moments I Never Showed You made me realise I still long for belonging, as I move out of Poland 6 years ago, and feeling that I neither belong to a home country or the UK, especially considering current political status, it all makes me feel like I don't have my place it the world.

This project accepts personal and visual encounters that speak of a connection that is grounded in the photographic composition and as such is a pause in the flow of time: fleeting. These images propose questions and allow me to evoke the conditions that occurred during the moment of taking the picture again.

Moments I Never Showed You is swinging between digital, analogue and moving image.

© Natalia Poniatowska - shot on 35mm film, Algarve
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shot on 35mm film, Algarve

© Natalia Poniatowska - GIF, annimated scan of 35mm film
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GIF, annimated scan of 35mm film

© Natalia Poniatowska - Watching
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Watching

© Natalia Poniatowska - Gathering
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Gathering

© Natalia Poniatowska - Kobiety
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Kobiety

© Natalia Poniatowska - Termes
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Termes

© Natalia Poniatowska - Dad I Never Had
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Dad I Never Had

© Natalia Poniatowska - Intimacy Bench, shot on 35mm film
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Intimacy Bench, shot on 35mm film

© Natalia Poniatowska - Reynisfjara, Blue
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Reynisfjara, Blue

© Natalia Poniatowska - Reynisfjara, American Wedding
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Reynisfjara, American Wedding

© Natalia Poniatowska - The View From My Balcony
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The View From My Balcony

© Natalia Poniatowska - Seltun
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Seltun

© Natalia Poniatowska - Southend
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Southend

© Natalia Poniatowska - Iceman
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Iceman

© Natalia Poniatowska - Lava Field
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Lava Field

© Natalia Poniatowska - Matching
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Matching

© Natalia Poniatowska - GIF, animated scan of 35mm film
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GIF, animated scan of 35mm film

© Natalia Poniatowska - Reynisfjara
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Reynisfjara

© Natalia Poniatowska - Irvine, shot on 35mm film
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Irvine, shot on 35mm film

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