Marian Schmidt

“I am a wanderer. With my camera, I look for treasures in everyday life. I hunt for gems. Having already traversed four continents, wherever I travel, I always carry a camera with me and try to be in places where something happens.

How do I prepare myself to take photographs? I disconnect from any burdens of everyday reality, freeing myself from unnecessary thoughts and mental associations. I enter another dimension in which I look at my surroundings with a clear mind. I observe people, situations and places. I feel the relationships between all the elements of the actual image in front of me, especially between people and their surroundings. I am able to establish a rapport of mutual trust with the people I photograph.

I try to capture authentic emotions, intensive innermost moments in people. At the same time, I endeavor to compose like a painter. I avoid disorder. Sometimes I succeed in finding poetic themes where their expression is beyond our recognition of what the subject represents and its apparent content.”

This way of working and relating to people whom he photographs is close to many famous humanist photographers who, moreover, Schmidt met in his professional path: Edouard Boubat, Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis and Henri Cartier-Bresson. At the same time, he developed his own style and methods of work.

“The talent of an artist manifests itself not only in one’s ability to convey one’s own living experiences but also in one’s gift to move another human being on the deepest level.”

The biggest influence on his life exerted Jiddu Krishnamurti, Hermann Hesse and Sergiu Celibidache.

“What matters is the present, being free from unnecessary habits, seeking freedom and unconditional love”.

The artist points out his spiritual bond with the writings of Herman Hesse and the teachings of the Hindu sage Jiddu Krishnamurti. He also acknowledges his meetings with people who inspired him. In his biography appear many famous characters of the world of art and science, such as the conductor Sergiu Celibidache (with whom he studied a phenomenology of music), the mathematician John Forbes Nash (whom he met while studying mathematics), Michelangelo Antonioni (who helped him find work in the film “Steppenwolf”). He constantly draws inspiration from the paintings of masters and classical music. He seeks inner peace in meditation, which allows him to work in a fresh and creative way.

In the 90’s, Marian Schmidt began his photographic pedagogical activity in France. Inspired by Sergiu Celibidache’s lectures on a phenomenology of music, he created his own method of teaching a phenomenology of the image. After returning to Poland in 1997, he lectured in Poznań, Łódź and Warsaw. Over the course of 30 years of pedagogical work, Marian Schmidt, raised a few thousand photographers through his unique teaching method. He was the founder and director of the Warsaw School of Photography and Graphic Design.

He was immensely happy when seeing the photographic works of his students; he used to say: “In such moments, I know that my pedagogical work has meaning”.

“The most important to me is what I can convey to others through my photographs, but also through my writings, discussions and teachings, with the hope that these are valuable to them. The rest is secondary”.