Short Flashes

'There are infinitely many of these faces I carry inside myself. Conceived in short flashes. I don't know whose, where, or when. I know nothing about them. But they live in me. Thoughtfulness, gazes, sorrows, pallor, grimaces, bitterness - they live in me, detained like on photographies. ' from "Treatise on shelling beans” by Wiesław Myśliwski I started working on this project during my first weeks of traveling in China, while I was walking around, observing, perceiving the new reality. On the streets many people were passing me by on their bicycles and scooters. I felt that I want to stop them to remember the expressions on their faces, different emotions, tiredness, forms of colorful shiny raincoats moved by wind, body reactions to the bad weather, low temperature, the rain... So I started pulling out individualities from the mass to keep them in my mind. One flash can freeze the moment - one moment of presence. 'Passing by in the blink of an eye: Wiktoria Wojciechowska photographed Chinese cyclists riding in the inclement, on-going rain. She considers her snapshot-like images are real portraits, as they speak of the truth of an undistinguished moment.' Leica Fotografie International Magazine, Special Edition Winners - Oskar Barnack Leica 2015