Maciek Pozoga – Chameleon

You could consider Maciek Pozoga a photographic chameleon. Fashion, editorial, reportage, portraiture, film – he juggles the lot with his skill behind the camera, but it proves why his unique style and incredible images are in such high demand – seamlessly switching between the various genres and blending together a patchwork of images that bridge the gap between comissioned works and art projects. An almost schizophrenic network of images creating a more complex ‘bigger picture’ with a single vision.

Check out our brief interview with the Paris based image maker, and some of his favourite selects.

Why do you shoot?

Because I can’t play music and I’m really bad at painting.

Equipment?

Depends what I’m taking a picture of, it can go from a cell phone to a 6X45 through to a small point & shoot

What do you love shooting most?

I don’t know. Anything I guess, I’m curious of everything as long as I feel some kind of ‘tenderness’ for the subject. It can be a friend, the foam of a wave, a screen shot in a movie, or even a commercial image I’ve been assigned to do. I just enjoy making pictures, any kind of pictures.

Favourite photographers?

Paul Outerbridge and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Worst shoot experience?

I guess it was this summer, it wasn’t a proper shoot, but I was on holiday driving around with friends in the mountains. I shot about 3 rolls of film during the trip and when I went to the lab to get them developed all of the rolls were blank. The camera shutter was making the noise of taking the picture but was not opening to let the light in. The photos were mainly personal vacation pictures, not extremely interesting stuff, but still it was a super weird and depressing feeling. Felt like a black out, a missing piece in my life. Surely it could have been way worse (like 30 rolls on an important commercial shoot), but still it was very annoying.

Favourite shoot experience?

I would say one time when I asked six friends to get naked in a public park for a picture I wanted to do. It was minus zero degrees, completely dark, the girls had reflectors on their eyes to have like ‘deer eyes’ with the flash so were only able to see their feet, and the park was not yet closed. Eventually joggers would pass near us, and see six naked girls appearing on the top of a hill every time the light was flashing. About 20 seconds after we finished I got caught because the keeper had seen the flashes from his cabin, he said I had to come with him to the police station so I went since I didn’t want him to catch the others and check my friends who were putting their clothes back on. But on the way to the police station some girl came to ask him if he had a lighter, it seemed like he was being flirty with her and had forgotten I was there for a second, so I managed to run and disappear in the park. After that we all had a beer in a bar to celebrate. It was the kind of rush you would have while doing graffiti when you’re a kid. It makes you really enjoy the beer you’re drinking after, knowing you are in a bar with your friends and not being handcuffed to a radiator with a cop hitting your head with a phone-book and telling you “What would you say if I was doing graffiti on YOUR house ”.

What would be your dream shoot?

I wish I had assisted Less Blank on Burden of Dreams, the documentary he did about the making of Fitzcarraldo.

What’s the perfect picture?

I don’t know about a ‘perfect picture’, but I’m fascinated by those pictures of uncontacted tribes in the Amazon taken by anthropologists from a plane. I like the fact there is no real contact, just a glance at each other, saving each others culture and keeping the necessary distance to allow some kind of mystery.

What’s next for you?

Dunno, I think i have this disease where you can’t think of the future or the past, like even thinking what I’m going to do in the next hour is hard for me. It’s annoying ^.^