Photography – Dominik Formanowicz

Photography

Abbas Kiarostami said: “Having a camera at hand is an invitation to stop and stare, to concentrate on what’s around us. The camera pushes me to pay attention”. I do believe that taking photos made me a better researcher and a better writer. Perhaps a better friend even, since taking photos of people I care about has become my love language. So far, I only shoot on film. Many people ask why. Wouldn’t I be more efficient with a digital camera? Wouldn’t I be able to take way more photos? For sure. Still, the truth is that I don’t want to take more photos. I want to be more intentional about my time and attention.

I do believe that “the medium is the message”. Using old technology in service of a contemporary gaze and contemporary questions takes them out of their context, introducing timelessness and perspective. An image of a modern building shot with 1920s technology introduces a discrepancy, discord, and a non-alignment of form and content. Thus, it poses a question. A photograph out of focus, with frames overlapping, with dust covering the film – it all reminds us that we never simply see, that our vision is always mediated, and that our gaze is more imperfect and vulnerable than we’d like to think. That is why I believe that, in a way, film photography points our attention back to our very selves. Transgressing the simple question of “What do I see”, it guides us to the unease and obscure reality of “How do I see?” and even “Who is the one seeing”. And, aside from all that, it’s so much fun.

Did you find my work interesting?

St. James Town, Toronto

The neighbourhood of St. James Town has shaped me in many ways. It forged my Canadian identity, which stemmed from a strong sense of being an “other”, a newcomer. It also taught me about immigrant presence in the cities of the Global North, about their enclaves and safe spaces. Having volunteered at St. James Town Community Corner, I have experienced on-the-ground multiculturalism as an open-ended, people-centred project. The stories and experiences embodied by over ten thousand immigrants living in a modernist, high-rise neighbourhood pushed me to write my PhD dissertation about the place. Currently, I am turning the dissertation into a book and writing a fictional immigrant tale situated in the area.

Nostalgia for the Present Moment

The photos I take are full of nostalgia, longing for “the moment”. That longing, along with the inability to fully grasp the ever-moving reality results in a creative frustration, the feeling of never being able to express the moment as it is. The outcome is a poetic journey through increasingly subtle levels of interaction with the world. Thus, what I call nostalgia for the present moment is not a project per se; it’s the creative angle of my effort, more of a method than a goal.

Street Photography

Street photography is the art of capturing the daily commotion of life. In capturing the interactions of people with spaces around them, my role as a human geographer (my education) and a photographer (my passion) align best, creating an opportunity for synergy. As much as capturing urban realities starts right outside the door of my apartment, I have also laid out plans for a reportage series focusing on the social groups I am interested in learning the most about, economic and educational migrants. The first one of the reportage journeys, planned for 2025, will lead me to Sweden.

Portraits

If I could spend my life taking photos of strangers and sending them copies afterwards, I probably would. Although arbitrary, the act of pointing the camera at someone, of establishing contact and giving them my full attention, is my personal remedy for the feeling that societies we create have abandoned their community-sustaining functions. Having a webpage dedicated to my photography fosters the connection with the world I portray even further, allowing the people in the photos to reach out and say “Hey, send me a copy”. It establishes my accountability for the images I create, for the moments I’m entrusted with.

Tao and Film

2024 brought changes to my life, closing some chapters and opening others. It wanted to document that. I’ve decided to follow a simple idea – putting together an ancient text of Tao Te Ching and my photography. TAO AND FILM is an album of eighty-one verses of Taoist wisdom accompanied by photos that resonated with the text. Although not destined to be published, created as a gift for my friends, TAO AND FILM opened up a new angle in my conceptual thinking – the idea of juxtaposing the tangible and the elusive, the timeless with the current, the world defined with words with the one expressed in images. The next step could be a more collective approach, rooted in the fun of a shared experience.