Cellist

Justyna Jablonska's Lost & Found

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LOST & FOUND: A CELLIST’S JOURNEY

This was probably one of my favourite projects last year. Performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in August, Lost & Found: A Cellist’s Journey, was a rumination on Justyna Jablonska’s personal and musical journey from Poland to Scotland after finishing high school in her hometown of Łódź. It mixed cello, electronica and video projections to tell the artist’s story.

Justyna and I have worked together on several projects in recent years and it’s always a joy and a challenge. For Lost & Found, my task was to take promotional images, design the artwork and produce a trailer for the show. Justyna wanted everything to have a vintage, analog feel so most of the images were shot on film and I tried to incorporate that aesthetic in the promo artwork and video.

While Justyna is based in Edinburgh, we took the main promo images in Glasgow as its industrial history and vibe are closer to Łódź, where Justyna is originally from. Have a look below:

Promo Poster for the Edinburgh Fringe

GEAR PHOTO
Nikon FM + Nikkor 100mm f1.8
Kodak 400TX

Nikon D850 + Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter

Sony A7III + Sony 85mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 Filter

GEAR VIDEO
Sony A7III + DJI RS 2
Sony 35mm f1.8
Sony 85mm f1.8
Tiffen Black Pro-mist 1/4 FilterS

Best of 2022 + Interview

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2022 Summary

This has been a rather strange year. When I sat down to compile my favourite images from the past 12 months, I felt quite dispirited when it comes to my work - nothing major, just slightly blah. And then it turned out I struggled to whittle down my selection to only 12 photos, it would appear I’ve actually done more interesting work than I gave myself credit for. Perhaps it’s just winter blues.

The main event of 2022 when it comes to my work was undoubtedly the Women At COP26 exhibition. It was quite an undertaking, a huge learning curve and something I’m very proud of. While its run at Trongate 103 finished at the end of October, it has now found a new home at Skypark in Finnieston where it will officially launch in January (albeit in a slightly abridged version). So there’s something to look forward to in the New Year, never a bad thing.

INTERVIEW - THE BRAW & THE BRAVE PODCAST

In other news, I was recently interviewed for The Braw & The Brave, Lisa Kennedy’s award-winning podcast about creative people and their passions. If you fancy listening to me talk about my work, discussing imposter syndrome and how I take my porridge in the morning among other earth-shattering revelations, click here to listen on Apple Podcasts or stream below via Soundcloud:

Anyway, back to 2022 summary - here’s my favourite dozen. Enjoy and let me know what you think:

And here’s what I’ve been obsessed with musically in 2022:

ALBUMS OF 2022
Renaissance Beyoncé
Yours Aye Jill Jackson
Motomami Rosalía
Dawn FM The Weeknd
Midnights Taylor Swift
Dirt Femme Tove Lo
Gemini Rights Steve Lacy
Angels & Queen Part 1 Gabriels
Blue Lawns The Great Yawn
Prism Say She She

SONGS OF 2022
Bad Habits Steve Lacy
Anti-Hero Taylor Swift
Baby Chicken Jill Jackson
Cosy Beyoncé
No One Dies From Love Tove Lo
Hung Up On Tokischa Madonna & Tokischa
Leaving Horse
Better Man Say She She
As It Was Harry Styles
Holy Hell Eddie Chacon

Justyna Jablonska

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The shoot with cellist Justyna Jablonska was meant to happen in March this year but, like many other projects, it was postponed until it was safe to do it. You know, something about a pandemic. When I was finally on the train to Edinburgh for our rescheduled shoot after the restrictions had been lifted, I realised I hadn't missed taking photos at all and begun to wonder whether I still had it in me. I wasn’t even sure whether I was interested in photography anymore. I know it may sound like crazy talk, but crazy seems to be the operative word for 2020 and it was genuinely what was going through my head sitting on that train (mask on, thank you very much).

During the lockdown, I was lucky enough to be healthy and have money to get by (was also eligible for the self-employment income support scheme) and after the initial panic, I decided to make the best of a bad situation. I found a strange comfort in knowing that we were all in the same boat and that there was absolutely nothing I could do. So I did things I don't normally have the time to do - took some online courses (music theory and such), read books (Maya Angelou, soul trilogy by Stuart Cosgrove and Ronan Farrow’s brilliant Catch and Kill among others), I messed around with music, played the guitar - you get the picture. I missed swimming but overall it wasn’t hard going for me.

Anyway, 5 minutes into this post-lockdown shoot with Justyna, I felt an overwhelming sensation of being in the right place, at the right time, doing what felt right. Perhaps it wasn’t so much that I didn’t miss photography, it’s just that I needed some time off to realise how much I actually loved it. Justyna and I had a great time, we shot outdoors and in her flat, it was easy and fun and we’ve already got other projects in the pipeline together. Check out some of the images below for the time being:

GEAR
Nikon D850
Nikkor 85mm f1.4
Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Neewer 120cm Octabox
Profoto A1
Profoto Air Remote TTL-N for Nikon