Michal Korta- Award Winning Portrait and Documentary Photographer

Steve and Nick's guest for this week's show is  Michał Korta, an award winning Polish portrait and documentary photographer, who shares his artistic approach, creative process, and unique projects. He is from a new generation of photographers who seek projects from both historical and every day life. He has published two photobooks, including Balkan Playground, a study of the complicated identity and atmosphere of the Balkan region. 

Steve has experienced the highs and lows of two very different weddings, and Nick has some important health advice for photographers who spend a lot of time in the sun. 

Michal Korta Website https://kortastudio.com/

Michal Korta Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michal_korta/

Balkan Playground Project https://www.lensculture.com/michal-korta?modal=project-60261

Transcript

Steve Vaughan (00:01)
Nick, like you, I've probably photographed 400, 500 or so weddings and experienced lots of weddings over the last 14 or 15 years. And over the last couple of weekends, I've had two really extreme emotions and experiences at weddings. So two weeks ago, my son got married and it was a fantastic day. And the best of it was I didn't take any photographs. Well, I did take a couple actually, but Sam didn't notice.

Nick Church (00:16)
yeah, come on.

Steve Vaughan (00:28)
We had a great photographer. We had the wonderful Emily Reynier, who's a great friend of ours and also a wonderful photographer, a Fujifilm ambassador. And she photographed the wedding in the way she does, in a very documentary observational way. And she was great. So fantastic job, Emily. Thank you so much for doing the wedding. She was on XH2s, think. XH2S, I think, actually, which is the sort of the high speed version. So that was lovely. And then last weekend...

Nick Church (00:44)
What was she using? The H2 thing. Yes. Yeah. Right.

Steve Vaughan (00:54)
we photographed a wedding and it was our worst experience in 15 years. ⁓ Well, not the couple, the couple were lovely. I'm not going to mention anything more about who we're talking about, but we photographed at a local hotel and not a place we tend to work at very often really. And it's not a place we're ever going to work to again. And I think it's a really important point to consider really. ⁓ Say again? Well, we've mutually agreed never to go there again.

Nick Church (00:59)
man, what happened?

Is that because you've been barred? Is that because you've been barred from it?

God.

Steve Vaughan (01:22)
So, you know, this drive for content that everybody's, you know, obsessed with for their social media, you know, everybody's looking for content. But we've never been to a wedding before when all the staff are going around with mobile phones all the time, trying to get content for their website, for their Instagram, during the wedding, during prep, during the evening. And it made our job impossible really. And I don't think even the bride and groom knew about it. So...

At one stage, Sam was trying to photograph the bride coming down from the hotel to the ceremony room and there were four members of staff in front of her all with their phones out trying to video and take content. Have you ever heard anything like that at all?

Nick Church (01:56)
God, how annoying. That's crazy.

Well, we don't want to get into content creation. There has been times where content creator has done a similar thing. Yeah, but I think in some cases when they're new to that job, just like it would be if a videographer turned up for their first gig at wedding, they're going to get in the way because you're not sure how the dynamics work like that exact thing. And you see wedding coordinators when they're walking the bride to the ceremony.

Steve Vaughan (02:05)
But that's their job. They're booked as content creators. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Of course.

Nick Church (02:24)
they know to move ahead or get out of the way so we can, we can take shots. Um, I have heard more that I've heard more and more that there's photographers and videographers that have their own content creators coming along and that's not getting in, not getting the video of videographer or the photographers way as much, but it's still, it's still a bit of a surprise to the couple. I imagine when suddenly there's two other people that they're not expecting.

Steve Vaughan (02:26)
They do.

right? Well,

Mm. Mm.

Well, this is the waiting

staff and the bar staff and the, you know, people who are, whose job is to provide services on the day, you know, and, that's a difficult job, but they're being asked by the hotel management to walk around with their phones so they can get content for the hotel's website and Instagram. And I've never known anything like it really. mean, it was just everywhere we turned and at the end we had to sort of say that we need to give some feedback. They didn't like the feedback. We agreed to disagree. So we've agreed we'll never go there again. So.

Nick Church (02:48)
Madness.

Mm.

Fine. Well, no

skin off your nose, is it? I think you get to a point where you think, well, you're not desperate for every book and it comes along. You know, it's a luxury to be in and it means that you can not pick and choose, not cherry pick the right ones, but when there's people that are not good to work with, or there's mate, let's say a couple that you know, like you've seen on Facebook, they've got views that you would absolutely disagree with. Then you've got the comfort of being able to say, do you know what? don't think I'm available on that day after all.

Steve Vaughan (03:19)
No.

Yeah, all that year, all that decade. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shall we start the show?

Nick Church (03:43)
Yeah.

Yes, let's do that.

Steve Vaughan (03:47)
So yeah, welcome to the photography pod with me, Steve Vaughan and my good mate Nick Church. Nick, how you've been the last couple of weeks since I last saw you.

Nick Church (03:55)
I've been pretty good. I've had a good reminder for everybody that's working outside, is wedding photographers, of course, but also street photographers and any photographers, landscape photographers, suppose, because I had a bit of a bump that kind of appeared on my head. And I went to the doctors about it. And this is three months ago. Then they said, come back in three months, look at it again, look at it again, and it had grown and they were really concerned about it. And they thought it was something called a

Steve Vaughan (04:13)
All right.

Wow.

Nick Church (04:24)
basal cell carcinoma, which is like a non-melanoma skin cancer through UV exposure. So yeah, I've been a bit kind of sidelined by that. Psychologically, I've had to carry on working and doing everything else, but it has taken up a lot of my space. Very fortunate, I'm in a position that with my business, we've got private health insurance. So I was able to go to the clinic, see a dermatologist and he confirmed it wasn't that.

Steve Vaughan (04:25)
Gosh.

Yeah.

Understandably my cracking, yeah. Wow.

Yeah.

Nick Church (04:50)
But it was something that he would want to get rid of. can't remember what he called it. It was just something that he zapped it with liquid nitrogen. It hurt for a couple of days and then fell off. So that was the end of that. but interestingly, he did say that on my head, especially I've got quite bad for my age, given up only only 28 for goodness sake, ⁓ quite bad sun damage through, probably not having much hair and being in the sun all the time. He said, you know, a lot of us are going to get these.

Steve Vaughan (04:50)
Good news. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, who would thought it, yeah.

Wow.

Nick Church (05:18)
less serious skin cancers get older and I'll

probably get them a bit earlier. So he said, you can't change history. You can't go back in time, but you can make sure that I'm wearing a hat. So I'm going to have to next summer. I'm going to have a slightly different style next summer. So I need to find a hat. It doesn't make me look absolutely ridiculous because I don't sue hats very much. But anyway, so that, so that was going on.

Steve Vaughan (05:30)
Yeah.

No baseball caps are on the way around. no, no. I

guess it's a serious point though, you're serious, is I'm similarly follically challenged as you are, and I'm also older than you as well. you know, walking around as we do in the sun, which is we have sun in the UK, on most weekends photographing weddings, I guess we do get a fair bit of UV on our heads, don't we? Yeah, yeah.

Nick Church (05:53)
We do, and it's all in,

it's probably the worst. This is a perfect storm because we're sitting in dark rooms for long periods of time, editing and working and studios and that, and then going out into the bright sun for 10 hours and not move, you know, and just being in full sun. I'm pretty, I, because I burn pretty easily. I've always said I can burn in front of the fridge if I leave the door open too long. I think I, so I've always been more like, I said, it'd be pretty good in terms of putting on factor 50 and things, but obviously not good enough. know, he was saying.

Steve Vaughan (05:59)
Tell everybody.

Nick Church (06:20)
You really need hat if you're going to be at that length of time, a wide brimmed hat. So it is a reminder to everybody that is working outside just to be, be pretty careful because whilst, you know, even if you don't feel that you're burning every hour we're in the sun, this is what this fellow was saying. We are increasing the UV aging on our skin, even if we're not actually physically burning. So it is something to bear in mind.

Steve Vaughan (06:40)
So here's

a public service announcement for the listeners. If anybody wants to suggest a hat for Nick, a particular design or a particular format of hat, we would love to hear from you. You can email the show at hatsfornick.net. I'm only kidding. ⁓ But in all seriousness, it's an important point really. yeah.

Nick Church (06:45)
Ha ha ha.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. was, but so

I was very relieved about that, but it is a good kind of reminder for the future. I had that, I mentioned the last pod that I was doing the funeral live stream, that it was like every live stream I've ever done. was, the timeline was, crap crisis, crisis, crisis. The wifi is not working. What's going to happen. man, this is an absolute nightmare. Then it was fine. It happens every time and it's just stressful.

Steve Vaughan (07:03)
Yeah, yeah, good news, mate, anyway, good news.

How did that go?

Thankfully, I

haven't done one of those since COVID times and I probably never want to do another one actually. Yeah. ⁓

Nick Church (07:24)
Yeah. ⁓ but yeah, the wifi, I did

two tests at the church previously before then absolutely fine. Good 20 megabit on the day, 0.6 or something. So I had to climb up into the steeple and find the router, which was right up, right up in there and reboot it. And it was, it was fine after that, but yeah, it was, I was slightly sweaty after that, but it went fine. ⁓ the other thing I've done is accidentally bought a Osmo pocket three.

Steve Vaughan (07:33)
think.

Wow. Things you do, mate. Things you do. Good.

Nick Church (07:51)
It was because I was charging the car in not far from you actually in Banbury. know, yeah, with a with with me going into Curry's in between that and maybe it something. Yeah, it was. Yeah, well, you know, because when you've registered Curry's, you know, once you knock off 20%, you're looking at the same prices, Panama's and places like that. So it doesn't really make much difference.

Steve Vaughan (07:55)
Okay, it actually fell into your car while you were there, did it? Yeah.

Oh, the Salomon Currys, okay.

Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've thought that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick Church (08:17)
So

yeah, I picked up one of those and it was something that it wasn't a complete ransom purchase. It's something that with the Academy stuff, I do need to be doing more, um, in the moment content and stuff, you know, so I'll be getting, I'm one of those people getting in people's way, but I need to be doing more stuff. And when I do these hybrid videos at weddings, when I'm taking the photos, but I want to have like a locked off angle, that's, that's going to be a game changer rather than setting up a camera and tripods and things. So yeah, so that's me.

Steve Vaughan (08:23)
Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

Hmm.

They're great for that. That's how I use ours. Yeah. Yeah.

So we have a guest who's sitting listening to us whittle on about all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff. So I think it's about time we gave our guest.

Nick Church (08:49)
Let me introduce

our guest. So today we have Michał Korta. He's a portrait and documentary photographer from Krakow and Poland. He exhibits work across Europe and lectures on photography as well. His work and personal projects really have a, when I was looking through them, has a deeper connection to his subjects than just a beautiful portrait, right? So I could take, know, well I consider it be quite a beautiful portrait, but then you look at this and it's,

something else and it's a it reminded me in a different way but in the same kind of level of gravitas as Andy Gotts work in that there's a connection there but his subjects are in the creative space the dancers and artists and authors but his work's got a deeper connection in terms of identity and meaning and the work I feel I felt as a complete

Steve Vaughan (09:22)
Yes, yes, agreed.

Nick Church (09:39)
layman looking at this kind of work I felt. There was like a documentary approach to the portraits. And that made them much more intense and energetic in a way. So sometimes the subjects aren't looking at the camera, but it was just really intense. And I really love that about it. The what else was I going to say about this? yeah, the other projects. So he works on loads of projects, and we're going to hear him talk about those shortly. So there's

abstract nightlife, nighttime photography of wildlife. So it's, it's very varied. And that's why I'm not going to give a big summary here because Michael Bichow can do that himself. Mihajł, welcome to the podcast. How are you? You're coming in live from Poland today.

Steve Vaughan (10:09)
why not get the man himself to do it. So welcome to the podcast.

Michał Korta (10:12)
you

Yes. Hello. Thanks for having me. Thanks for the invitation. Well, for the lovely invitation, would say everything is correct. Yes. If I had to like shortly characterize myself, I would say I'm balancing between commercial portrait photography, documentary, and I would say art or gallery sort of photography, which is, I don't know if it means something.

Steve Vaughan (10:22)
we get it right? Thank you.

Nick Church (10:25)
a big tick.

Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (10:43)
Yeah.

Michał Korta (10:43)
or

yeah. ⁓

Nick Church (10:47)
Would

you consider yourself, Mikhail, to be a photographer primarily or an artist or curator? How do you see yourself?

Michał Korta (10:53)
⁓

I don't like the word artist, but I would say visual creator, which is maybe a little bit more technical term, but it suits me well, I think. One more thing in the introduction, you compared my pictures to Andy God's fabulous work. And I was, of course, aware of him and his...

the style and creation. But if I had to compare myself to my work, to his work, would say his portraits are very much screaming and my mine are quite silent. ⁓ And I think that's the biggest difference. I'm kind of moving into slightly different areas of the, let's call it soul.

Steve Vaughan (11:29)
Got you. Yeah. That's exactly what you Yeah.

Michał Korta (11:41)
souls of the sitters. I'd like to get there. Yeah, but that's the main difference, I would say.

Nick Church (11:48)
That

makes a lot of sense because let's listen to Andy talk as he did on previous episode of this pod. His, a lot, his approach was very much about a two way interaction. He really gets the two way interaction. And then as they're giving him that interaction, he's capturing the portraits. So are you saying that yours is more of an internal, that the energy comes from them themselves and you're more of a observer of that?

Michał Korta (12:11)
A funny thing because I recently listened to this podcast with Andy and I was surprised how, because I knew his work before, but I was surprised how many similarities in the way of working we have together. mean, the way of working is very similar, but it appears to me that he is looking for some different sort of energy by the sitter, I think, than me.

I don't know, I don't, I really rarely take pictures of smiling people. ⁓

Steve Vaughan (12:41)
Hmm. And

that's a deliberate thing, is it?

Michał Korta (12:44)
I think, yes, of course, it's like my choice to look in these areas when I'm looking for a portrait. When I was younger, I was saying to myself that I'm looking more for something which we can call truth. But now I'm not sure if it's possible to get there with the photography. It's just a surface, yeah, but we can talk for hours about this.

Steve Vaughan (12:57)
Okay, got you.

Michał Korta (13:06)
But,

Nick Church (13:07)
A smile in almost, well, certainly most cases isn't true, is it? It's an affectation that we do when there's a camera around.

Michał Korta (13:11)
I mean, yeah, it can be hiding as well. There are

Steve Vaughan (13:16)
Yeah, great

point.

Michał Korta (13:17)
a lot of people who don't know what to say, they're smiling or telling jokes just to avoid the topic or the main reason of the conversation. I always say that the portrait is like a meeting of two energies and they have to meet somewhere in the middle and like...

Steve Vaughan (13:22)
Mm.

Michał Korta (13:34)
spark some extra energy if it's possible.

Steve Vaughan (13:37)
Sure, sure.

Why don't you tell us a bit about your background first of all, so how you became a photographer, what got you into the kind of work that you do now.

Nick Church (13:39)
I'm...

Michał Korta (13:46)
Well, I did really very different things in photography. I even made a weddings in the beginning of my career. So I was searching really for a long time, doing products, photography, architecture, like advertising and commercial stuff. And with the time I realized I really like working with people.

Steve Vaughan (13:53)
Okay.

Michał Korta (14:06)
That's the most interesting thing in photography for me. And sometimes I would say the talking and the possibility to having a face in front of my face is more important than the picture sometimes. So I could easily forget about the camera and just be in front of the face of other person to talk to this person and to...

Steve Vaughan (14:22)
sure.

Michał Korta (14:31)
to see all the non-language communication, the small mimics in the face or smiles and everything, all the nuances you cannot actually transfer into a portrait.

Steve Vaughan (14:45)
Mm. Mm. Mm.

Nick Church (14:47)
What,

when you were doing that, more, regular, I guess type of photography. And it's probably something that a lot of people have that they're doing. You're doing a job in all fields. You're doing a job and you love it to start with, but then it becomes a bit, you know, you just doing it, you're going through the motions of doing it. What was it that made you think, right, I'm going to now move into something else, you know, cause that's quite a, that's quite a jump, isn't it?

Michał Korta (15:11)
I'm not sure if I understand the question. Can you?

Nick Church (15:13)
So if you

were doing more commercial and product photography and that sort of thing, compared with your work now, at some point you've decided that you're going to change direction. How did that come about?

Michał Korta (15:27)
It's like, you know, with every commercial assignment, it's like somebody's vision almost. Yeah, because you have like an art director or, I don't know, editor or the magazine and he wants something. And it's not always aligned with my vision or how I would approach the person or the topic. Yeah. So first of all,

Steve Vaughan (15:45)
Got you, yeah.

Michał Korta (15:48)
Second of all, I really like in the picture to have like my point of view or my attitude to the situation or person or.

Steve Vaughan (15:57)
to.

Michał Korta (15:57)
So it's not always allowed in advertising or commercial photography to comment your own point of view or your own, you know, even like political view or I like when there is like the second or third layer in the picture. So the meaning behind this picture. I mean, beauty is not a category for me anymore, even though

In the beginning of my career, of course, I love to meet models and photograph them just to have a pure beauty in the picture. But nowadays it's not enough. I mean, it's boring to me. So I have to have something more.

Nick Church (16:28)
Mm-hmm.

And how do you find that? What's your process for one of these projects? How would you find those people that have that beauty that you recognize now?

Michał Korta (16:41)
⁓

I read, I think, and I observe. And this is my work as a photographer. And I do this very intensely, like I dream, I think, I live photography. But the majority of it happens in my head. And then eventually, after time, some ideas or some projects I carry in my head or in my mind or in my heart for many years, really, literally.

before I decided to start doing it. Sometimes it's like a sparker and really happens overnight. I very often have this like sudden illuminations, which are, I don't know, under the shower or while running or riding a bike or doing some silly stuff.

But it happens, it happens. But I consider them as a result of having this in my head for many weeks or months or years.

Nick Church (17:39)
And are those things, Michal, the things that have been in your head for a while, are they consciously there on the back burner and you're planning to do those in future? Or is it suddenly you're aware that they've been there a long time and it's something you want to act on right away?

Michał Korta (17:53)
You know,

there are some situations that two impossible thoughts have to meet at the same point in one moment to spark a new idea or some sort of out of the box connections. like you take something from one completely different world and put into another one and there is boom.

I should do this like this. So it's really, I don't know if it's like one way of, of thinking of a process. Yeah. On my, on my homepage, I described this, but sometimes I really take like a small group of people, which are in some sort of unique, like characterized by, don't know, not obvious.

think. Yeah. as an example, I can give you like a project which I made like 15 years ago or something like I decided to photograph Israeli female soldiers because we are not used to I mean in Poland there is no obligatory military service for women. And I was like this is interesting. What are the young girls like who are like 17 or 18 or I know and they they they go

Nick Church (18:40)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Michał Korta (19:09)
to military, I'm not sure yet, is it for one or two years, obligatory. There are girls who are supposed to be mothers in the future and they're in the military going with weapons and shooting people. So it's like really, I wanted to face them, to see in their eyes and to understand this. Because I was wondering, how come, what do they think, what kind of people are they?

Nick Church (19:30)
Mm-hmm.

Michał Korta (19:39)
So this is enough for me to start like an avalanche, a project of getting there and getting the girls in front of my camera.

Steve Vaughan (19:49)
So just tell us a bit more about it because I was looking at it on the website where you were speaking really and it's a fascinating project as you say there's you know it's a national service requirement in Israel. how did you go about doing that and when you approached the soldiers what were their reactions to start with?

Michał Korta (20:05)
Well, the project was, I I've sent several emails to IDF, to the Israeli Defense Force with no reply. And I was hopeless, but I got the ticket to Tel Aviv and I was like, I'm going there anyway. And we will see, maybe I will have holidays. And literally a few days before the flight, I got a replied email from a girl who was like,

Steve Vaughan (20:21)
Wow.

Michał Korta (20:31)
in PR office of IDF. And she said to me that she has like Polish ancestors and she was interested who is this person and what he wants. And I should explain there a little bit more. So I explained what I want, what's the idea. And she said, okay, you should come to the base and...

Steve Vaughan (20:33)
Mm. Mm.

wow.

Michał Korta (20:52)
and we will see what we can do. And I intended to do this with a large format analog camera, which was really crazy, ⁓ even though going through all the security at the base. Yeah, but finally I got like several girls and I took the pictures and it was like my idea and my project, but...

Nick Church (20:59)
you

Steve Vaughan (21:11)
Amazing.

Michał Korta (21:15)
It was shown in a places and it was published in the major Polish magazine on the cover. So it was really, really great.

Steve Vaughan (21:22)
Fantastic.

Nick Church (21:22)
Bye.

Steve Vaughan (21:25)
Yeah. And looking at your books, which will come on to, as you an author now, one of the books that really caught my eye and it's something that, you know, Nick and I have both been to that part of the world. So your book on the Balkans. So, you know, we both had vacations this year in the Balkans. I spent a bit of time in Bosnia as well. So it's part of Europe that's always fascinated me. And I guess it's something which obviously sparked your attention as well. So

tell us a bit about that project because the photography in that book is, just looking at the website now is extraordinary.

Michał Korta (21:53)
Yes. So Balkan Playground was like a, it also actually happened by accident. So maybe, maybe there is a way. I was fed up with everything. I was like tired and depressed and I was like, there was so much going on at this time. It was like 2014, I think. And I decided to go into the woods for like five days for a reset. Like I, at the time I was using my old

Steve Vaughan (21:58)
Hahaha.

Michał Korta (22:19)
Land Rover and I had like sleeping in the back and I decided to go into the woods like for a few days without internet just to disconnect from people and to be myself on my own for a few days like having a fireplace and quiet time. I took some books and I hit the road towards Polish mountains in the Beskid in the south.

Steve Vaughan (22:22)
music.

Michał Korta (22:39)
And I climbed a of a mountain with a car, a very slippery mountain. I stay with the car in the middle of the wood. And there was like super heavy storm at night, like rain, like it rained for three days actually. And I couldn't go down with the car because it was so slippery and so much mud. lucky me, I had like a box of books and I was reading

Steve Vaughan (22:54)
Wow.

Michał Korta (23:02)
Imaginary Balkans, think, by Professor Todorova. Very good book and I was so hooked that I decided, well, I'm here and actually from this place to the border is like one or one and a half hour and I can go south and see if I can get to the Balkans. Right there from this place, so I didn't prepare. I had like my camera and some...

Steve Vaughan (23:23)
You just went.

Michał Korta (23:23)
some food and some books and everything I need for being on the road I had in my car. So let's try if I can get there. And the next day I sent home a picture from Sarajevo to my mom and I said, it will probably take a few weeks longer than I intended, but don't worry, I'm fine. And then I was like,

Steve Vaughan (23:26)
Wow.

music.

Michał Korta (23:46)
thinking what can I say about Balkans? It's like ex-Yugoslavia country, pretty similar when you consider the under Soviet influence history to Polish history. So I feel they're like home. And let's see if I can get something interesting, something between the lines. And because...

Steve Vaughan (23:57)
Yeah.

Michał Korta (24:07)
I have to admit now that I was really at the time I was really under influence of Alex Sot. Maybe if you know his works you can read this in from the book. But I was also focused on people and places like looking a little bit post-Soviet, a little bit surreal. So I really met wonderful people. I spent like two over two months

sleeping in my car in different countries.

Steve Vaughan (24:30)
Wow. And just for

Nick Church (24:32)
God, that's nice dedication.

Steve Vaughan (24:34)
people, guess, in the UK, also perhaps in other parts of the world, what kind of distance is that from southern Poland down into...

Michał Korta (24:41)
It's like

not that far. It's like two and a half, three thousand kilometers. Yeah, but of course I was like making breaks for several days and like going in circles. So actually I visited all the Balkan countries beside Croatia, probably because Croatia was very popular at the time among

Steve Vaughan (24:47)
Okay, yeah. Yeah, so it's still a fair drive, but it's not like driving to Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Okay.

Michał Korta (25:09)
to Gorder as a tourist, so I decided to skip it. Now I regret it a little bit, but anyway, I spent a really wonderful time and Montenegro is the best place to drive a car. Lovely views and fantastic ways. But Albania was also great and Kosovo...

Steve Vaughan (25:11)
Yeah, things pop up everybody these days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Michał Korta (25:29)
Bosnia-Herzegovina, it was really amazing. And I spent like really a lot of time outside meeting people, talking to them and sometimes taking my camera and photographing them as well. And I really think that some of the portraits are still strong. I mean, like there is like a Kung Fu girl

Steve Vaughan (25:47)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Michał Korta (25:52)
on the beach with a covered head. She was from a Greek karate team. They were doing some meetings in the Balkans. But there is also this picture at the end of the book of, I think his name was Seat. He was a beekeeper and it was in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was driving a car and it was like sunset.

Steve Vaughan (25:53)
I can see that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Church (25:55)
seeing that one.

Michał Korta (26:16)
golden hour and I was like, wow, this guy in the field with this bee, I don't know, heaves, it's called bee heaves, hives, sorry, bee hives. So I should photograph him and I went there, but it was like a few hours drive and I wanted to go to the toilet first. So I ran on the side and ran into the bush.

Nick Church (26:27)
Beehives, yeah, hives, yep.

Steve Vaughan (26:28)
Hives. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

No, no, not at all.

Michał Korta (26:44)
And he started screaming, hey, don't run, don't go there, don't go, there are mines here. And it was minefield actually. And I was like, wow, thank you for saving my life, yeah, by the way. But it was fantastic because the hives were put along the way. So the bees were actually collecting the... Yes, yes, exactly, yes, exactly.

Nick Church (26:49)
Hmm.

Steve Vaughan (26:49)
Wow.

Nick Church (26:51)
Wow.

Steve Vaughan (27:03)
This picture we're just sharing now, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michał Korta (27:05)
So the bees were going to the minefield and collecting the honey from there. So I think it's a beautiful metaphor of how creative people can be ⁓ to achieve something good even in this ⁓ hopeless situation. I ⁓ think all the minefields are now ⁓ safe, in the Balkans at least.

Steve Vaughan (27:22)
Yeah.

Michał Korta (27:33)
But still, I think it's like really very ⁓ good metaphor for many things.

Steve Vaughan (27:39)
Yeah.

Nick Church (27:40)
And at this point,

Michal, are you having the, is the book of the end result of the project in your mind or is it still just an exploration of geography and society?

Michał Korta (27:51)
This was one of the last pictures I took during this trip. I knew that there will be a project, maybe a book, for sure an exhibition or something. But in the beginning, I didn't know I wanted to a book. I was after a collection of photography who told me something about Balkans at this time in 2014.

Steve Vaughan (28:14)
think it's a fascinating part of the world because in many ways it's, historically it's been a crossroads between Europe and Asia really. When we were in, Nick and I spoke about this before, but when we were on vacation in Croatia we spent the day in Mostar in Bosnia and I remember vividly the Yugoslav war from the 90s, war should I say.

Michał Korta (28:21)
Yes, yes, exactly.

Steve Vaughan (28:36)
And I just was googling a few days after we got back and I found out about there was a march in London to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica, if I'm saying it correctly, ⁓ atrocity. And I went down for that, not because I've got any connection with it at all, I just wanted to go and sort of support it really. And I got talking to a lovely couple who invited me to go to their family's home in Sarajevo.

Michał Korta (28:45)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (28:58)
whether we'll do that, I don't know. But they just seemed to be friendly, warm people, really, considering some of the things that they've been through in that part of the world. And they were also saying about the Winter Olympics was in Sarajevo, of course, was it 1980? Something like that. And they said that you can go up to the bobsleigh run it and it's all twisted metal and rotting and everything, but you can still go up there and look around. And I thought that would super cool for photos.

Michał Korta (29:05)
Yeah.

Something like that, yeah.

Nick Church (29:26)
I suppose that Steve is the, you know, this is what we hold is done is take that as a sort of seed for an idea and then it turns into something. And I just fully respect that dedication to follow it, following that feeling.

Steve Vaughan (29:32)
Yeah, absolutely.

completely.

Michał Korta (29:36)
But you know, when

you go, not intending for a book, you just photograph the place and people, you collect everything. And then the majority of work happens afterwards while the editing. Because I mean, I could make probably three different books from this material. Oh, when I started this, I decided to do very little pictures. I don't want to bring 20,000 pictures from the

Steve Vaughan (29:51)
Yeah.

Michał Korta (30:07)
trip. So actually I did like five or six thousand during those two months, which is in my opinion not that many. Yeah, really exactly. was trying to think like my mantra, photograph like you photograph analog. So one, two pictures of every

Nick Church (30:15)
That's quite frugal. I could get through that in a wedding day.

Steve Vaughan (30:19)
in the morning.

Yeah, love that.

Michał Korta (30:29)
situation you want to photograph.

Nick Church (30:32)
You talked about kit there a bit. I know you do use analog and digital together. What's your favorite kit of all the stuff that you use?

Michał Korta (30:43)
I in my life I used I don't know like 40 cameras or something I'm not having This one anymore, but I really like the Leica Q and I'm thinking about getting maybe new version one day soon because it I'm not sure yet. Maybe two monochrome or three 43 I'm not sure yet, but

Steve Vaughan (30:54)
the original, yeah.

What the Q3? Yeah.

⁓ okay. Nice.

Michał Korta (31:07)
I think literally that was the equipment, the gear that interrupted me the less during my work. So it was the most intuitive camera to me. But I didn't like the length of the lens.

Steve Vaughan (31:20)
Mm.

think a lot of like a photographer say that. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Church (31:26)
I swear.

Michał Korta (31:34)
It's too wide for me, the 28. So now with the 43 it's quite interesting, but not cheap.

Steve Vaughan (31:39)
cheap.

Nick Church (31:40)
Do you do you still shoot analog film?

Michał Korta (31:43)
Yes, yes,

of course. I actually, I was doing some holidays a week ago and I decided to leave my digital camera at home and took only analog. I still have like small, medium and large format analog cameras. And I occasionally use them mostly for my personal projects. Yeah, but I really love my Makina.

67, which is like amazing travel camera. And I like the proportions of the frame and the collapsibility of the, the, of the.

Steve Vaughan (32:06)
Mm.

Michał Korta (32:14)
it.

Nick Church (32:15)
What camera was used in your project about the wildlife at night time with the skulls and these things? It's just a fascinating body of work.

Michał Korta (32:22)
⁓ but

thank you. The project took me like 10 years or, actually still I would say ongoing, even though I've published the book and make several exhibitions. but I still continue doing this project. So I have images there from my cell phone to analog small cameras, till large format Leica. So very different equipment. Actually the schools.

are studio images which are made mostly with the Leica S. But now I'm using Fuji GFX, so I continue with the Fuji.

Nick Church (33:00)
Steve, you tried a GFX, didn't you? A couple of months ago.

Steve Vaughan (33:04)
So I know

the people in Fujifilm UK pretty well because we used to shoot Fujifilm and they have a scheme in the UK. Scheme always sounds like it's something a bit dodgy. They have a program where you can trial a camera for a weekend and you have to leave a deposit. And I did get a hold of a GFX100, the rangefinder version of it. And it's a phenomenal camera and I could happily have one for myself. I don't see...

me using one professionally, but as listeners to the show know, I'm going to pack up doing weddings in about 18 months or so. it'd then what do I want to buy for myself? And that will be very high on the list. It's a phenomenal camera. Yeah. So what's next for you, Michail? Where do you see yourself going with your photography, your books, your work? What's going to happen in the next five years?

Michał Korta (33:54)
I know, think

I feel like over the last few years I'm slowing down and doing less, but more of I really enjoy. Sounds nice. Although not always financially as you can imagine. Yeah, but I think, mean, I don't need to.

Nick Church (34:09)
You

Steve Vaughan (34:10)
Yeah.

Michał Korta (34:17)
to rush anymore. I'm doing my projects. I'm doing a little bit of commercial portraits for magazines, agencies and institutions. I wish sometimes it could be more, but it is what it is. I'm just trying to be passionate about it all the time. Sometimes I have like literally too many ideas.

for myself and for my next steps in the career. So I need to kill some of the ideas to stay focused on the most important. I really like doing portraits and I really like photography as a way to express myself as an artist or creator. And combining those two factors

will show me the way somewhere, I think, in the future, you know?

Nick Church (35:09)
I was, I was really fascinated by your mythical Kiki Ballroom project. is that last year? so a series that was that, that for the listener that was featured in Vogue magazine and exhibited, in many places. So, so that focused on the LG, LGBTQ plus community. can you give our listeners a bit of background about that ballroom scene, about what that, what, that is just to clarify.

Michał Korta (35:13)
Thank you. Yeah.

Kiki Ballroom's scene, also known as voguing, is like some sort of dance activities, enjoying dance and community. And it started in the 60s in Harlem among the minorities in the US, but then later on spread to other communities as well.

And it's like relatively new in, I would say in my part of Europe, like for the last 10 years or something. But it's growing very fast and like it's very open. It's very open to everybody. So it's not only for LGBTQ plus, but so anybody can go there. And I was fascinated by

by them, by their openness, by their creativity, by the really fun they have. At the same time, there are some specific rules and specific moves for dancing. And I wanted to understand them. It's the same example with the Israeli soldiers. I wanted to face them, I wanted to understand them, I wanted to feel them.

And they're wonderful people. I did this series, but I hope I will continue this in other places. maybe for now, there are only like post portraits in this, but I feel like I'd like to see some more like reportage slash documentary images as well in this. And this could contribute to the project different perspective. I know I'm an outsider.

And I know that they normally do very different pictures, but that's why I think this is important to show my point of view, like very, I would say, classic, because the image is even stylistically reminding a little bit of like large format black and white photography from 1900 or something.

But that was the idea, like very classic to show something super modern.

Nick Church (37:30)
So I think the listener can look at probably the, would your Instagram be the best place to look at some of this work?

Michał Korta (37:38)
Yes, or can type Korta and Vogue and Kiki and you can find it or we can put the link here.

Nick Church (37:42)
Yeah. So, um, me, me has Instagram is, is,

Steve Vaughan (37:43)
We'll put some links in the show notes as well. Yeah.

Nick Church (37:46)
um, me hell, um, of course, that's M I C H a L underscore quarter K O R T a. So, um, that says Instagram handle. And I think, uh, me how that, that is a, you know, given the, the situations that we have in the world of not understanding certain communities and

Steve Vaughan (38:07)
very much.

Nick Church (38:07)
A lot

of that is based around fear and misunderstanding. And for a lot of people, sadly, that puts a barrier up and creates conflicts. what you've very openly done is say, I'm really fascinated by this. It's not something I've experienced in. I want to go and look at that more and find out what's about it and find the beauty in that. I thought, what a fantastic approach and a way to think about all different things that we're not aware of. It's certainly an area that I would know nothing about.

Steve Vaughan (38:36)
Amen.

Nick Church (38:36)
So yeah, absolutely fascinating. That's, that's really inspirational to think, to use that way of thinking, to break down these barriers and, and what you've given that those communities is a different way of looking at it. Cause you guys have not come from a position of knowledge or anything else. It's just completely brand new looking at it with fascination and wanting to communicate these sorts of communities more widely. And I think that's, that's a fantastic thing.

Steve Vaughan (38:58)
Absolutely.

Nick Church (39:01)
Mikael, thank you so much for your time today. That's been brilliant. We will put in the show notes all of the links. Just very quickly, your books. Is Amazon the best place that people can find those?

Michał Korta (39:12)
I think my side would be better. I'm not sure they're on Amazon. Yeah, unfortunately, the Balkan playground is sold out. I mean, I have like few copies which are like not really from the publisher because the book was published like kind of twice. I self-published first edition and then it was published by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow. But...

Nick Church (39:14)
Okay, less commission, good idea.

Michał Korta (39:35)
Yeah, as I said, I have few last copies if somebody is interested in the Balkans. Or you can find some used one online somewhere.

Steve Vaughan (39:40)
Well, put me down for one.

Yeah,

I'd love to get a copy of it because it's a part of the world that fascinates me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so.

Nick Church (39:46)
Yeah, no, likewise, likewise. Yeah.

We'll put a link to website ⁓ as well so people can ⁓ take a look.

Michał Korta (39:51)
Great. Thank you.

Steve Vaughan (39:54)
Thank you so much, just one last question for me. noticed you unfortunately my Polish isn't good enough, but you've got workshops on your site. just tell us a bit about the workshops you offer as well.

Michał Korta (40:03)
I used to teach photography at Nikon Academy in Poland for many years. I was the light and portrait expert, but I'm not doing it anymore with Nikon. Occasionally I do workshop, like personal workshop for a few persons, like four, five, six people max a group. So stay tuned on my media if you want to.

Steve Vaughan (40:06)
Okay.

Right.

Okay.

Michał Korta (40:24)
Or maybe somebody invites me to the UK. I don't see a problem here. To do some workshops there as well. ⁓ But yeah, I'm doing this. My most interesting workshop is awareness of light. How to use natural light in a portraiture in every situation.

Steve Vaughan (40:30)
it looked over here. Yeah.

Michał Korta (40:47)
no matter the gear.

Steve Vaughan (40:48)
I like that.

Where did I see somewhere on your website that light is God or God is light or something you write which I thought was just a fantastic way of looking at it. Light is God. yeah, and that's probably a great way to wrap up the interview. But thank you so much, Schmidt-Halstead. Nick and I normally chat for the five, 10 minutes or so, but please stay with us and if you want to chip in in any way then please do so. But we really appreciate you being with us today. Great to find out more about your work. So I haven't told you.

Nick Church (40:56)
Light is good.

Michał Korta (41:03)
Thank you.

With pleasure, thank you.

Nick Church (41:13)
Thank you, Mihail.

I'm always

in awe, Steve, of somebody that has an interest in something and just gets off their ass and does it. know, because I have these interests all the time, but don't do anything remotely like that. Although I think you're better. I think you do more. know, you do when you're away on holiday and stuff like that. You got interested in the history and the politics of that region.

Steve Vaughan (41:18)
So am I, completely.

It's it's same here, but I do nothing about it. Yeah.

Yeah,

I tried to, but I guess I don't, you know, I don't get in the back of my Land Rover and drive off for three weeks, which is just a three months where everyone's wish you just a well, this is true. I don't have a Mitsubishi Outlander, which is close enough. So, ⁓ right. So you took the mickey out of me last time because I had ordered a new camera. and, I thought the listener might like to know how we've got on with it. So our Sony A1 arrived and it's wonderful. It is.

Nick Church (41:41)
But you don't have a Land Rover Steve, so that's... Yeah. yeah, that is actually...

yes.

This one week

after one week of use two weeks of use. wow.

Steve Vaughan (42:00)
We've used it for three weddings now.

And it's obviously Sam's camera, although she's let me use it occasionally, but from a, think it's probably the perfect wedding photography camera. I really mean that because it's, it's obviously a stack sensor. it's silent electronic shutter, fast readout blackout free. So Vicka, know, Vicka free cameras, I call it. 50 meg. Yeah.

Nick Church (42:21)
Flicker free, flicker free and flicker free.

Steve Vaughan (42:24)
You know, 50 mega 50 mega bites, picks up sensor. So from a, for megapixels, sorry, from a crop ability point of view is great. You know, ⁓

Nick Church (42:32)
What's the,

APS C mode of that 24.

Steve Vaughan (42:35)
Probably

nearest 18, something like that. Probably workable. Absolutely workable. Yeah. But as you expect from a Sony, the focusing is insane. ⁓ Files are lovely to work with. You know, just a great camera. mean, the new A1 Mark II has the AI chip, so it does subject recognition, but you know, for the work that we do. So what really? And you can pick them up for 3K now, which is just incredible really. Yeah. So are tempted?

Nick Church (42:39)
Okay, yeah that's doable isn't it?

Mm.

What's the price?

Yeah, that is good.

I am because as you know, need to sort things out next year. I'll be certainly swapping at least that you always think when you've got, when you work with two cameras, there's almost no point in replacing one is there because, cause then you've got your workflows that interrupted a little bit. I'll see probably the, you know, springtime when weddings really, really start to sort of kick in heavily. I'll be looking at the CFDA seven five has been released. ⁓ yeah.

Steve Vaughan (43:13)
Nah.

It should be out by then. It's due out anytime, I think, yeah.

Nick Church (43:28)
and I'll see the specs of that. But I'm guessing it's going to be a locked down 4K 50 frames second again.

Steve Vaughan (43:37)
I don't know, I've seen lots of rumours, but if it's that same 33 megapixel sensor in a different body, I think there'd be lot of disappointed people, particularly videographers, because you have to crop to 4K 60 on that sensor. To crop 4K 50 you have to into crop sensor mode, and who wants to do that really?

Nick Church (43:47)
Mm.

Yeah,

exactly. So that, that would be the deal breaker. think if it, if it does that, has that issue, well, I'll call it an issue, but it's probably an intentional thing, I imagine, because they want A1 sales on it and A7S3 sales to be good. But if it's got that limitation, then I don't see it adds much to my A7 for, because that, that focuses perfectly well. And I think then I probably would be looking at the A1. And I'll have to work out because we're trying to sort our house out. So I'll have to work.

Steve Vaughan (44:04)
Mostly.

No, I think you're right.

Nick Church (44:20)
What? Yeah, yeah, maybe.

Steve Vaughan (44:20)
Time to get the credit card out.

Just a reminder also for the listeners based in the UK or can get access to the UK that we are having a meetup on the 1st of November. So I had this wacky idea that we would play photo monopoly. So the idea is we will meet up in London on the 1st of November. And depending on how many we have, you if we can get a decent number of people.

We get the London Monopoly board with all the different streets and properties and things on the board, perhaps not jail. And we split a bit four teams and the project really is in each team to have one side of the board. Well, it could be a pub. mean, really just to capture photographs that represent that particular street or property, but without doing the obvious photograph the road sign. you know.

Nick Church (44:57)
To go to a pub on each road. Is that right?

Yeah, that'd be great idea.

but hopefully, hopefully that if it's what's the best way Steve people are interested in in that Facebook group.

Steve Vaughan (45:16)
Join the Facebook group, which is just the photography part, not surprisingly. We've got a bit of a collaboration going on with the Fuji cast podcast in so far as that Andreas Georgiades is a marketing manager of Fujifilm UK has graciously offered us to use the studio at the house of photography as a rendezvous place so we can meet up there. Yeah. Well, clearly, clearly, obviously, clearly, obviously ⁓ now brilliant. Andreas, thank you very much. Cause it means we can have somewhere we can rendezvous and also

Nick Church (45:33)
They want a bit of the photography pod, don't they? They desperately get involved. It's embarrassing, really. But no, isn't the end joke. That is really appreciated. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (45:44)
meet up and even possibly look at some images and things before we head off to the pub afterwards. So yeah, if you're interested, best place to do is join the Facebook group, the PhotographyBot Facebook group. There is an event in there. We're planning to meet up about 11 o'clock, something like that, and then go off and shoot. And obviously November in London, it'll be getting dark about four o'clock. So that sounds like a good time to go to the pub. But yeah, it'll a bit of fun, but also nice to put some faces to names as well. So check out the PhotographyBot.

Nick Church (46:11)
Amazing.

forward to it. All right, well, thank you everyone for downloading this episode and your continued support. Do the review on Spotify or iTunes. That would be greatly appreciated because it means that they then distribute it a bit more widely to other photographers.

Steve Vaughan (46:15)
And yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for doing so. And we've also got another guest lined up for the next show as well. Nick. ⁓ That's you.

Nick Church (46:36)
The next, yes. That's me.

Yeah, we have Carl Taylor on the next record. Steve, do want to give a quick summary?

Steve Vaughan (46:46)
Well, I think he's a very well known educator, trainer. So he's been very, very active for many years as a photography trainer, particularly in the areas of lighting, which we've spoken about often on this podcast. you know, won't sort of let him say more about what he does when he joins the pod, but his work and his education is well known. very well respected photographer. We'll have a lot to say for sure. So looking forward to having him here.

Nick Church (47:05)
Yeah.

And certainly if you look at, mean,

just some incredible photos on his Instagram, just like flawless, really beautiful pictures in there. So, ⁓ and in a very, you know, very controlled lighting, you know, just to perfection. And it's just, it makes me realize what a great contrast we have of the people that are happy to come on this podcast. So, ⁓ because work is could not be more different and they're both just incredible in different ways. ⁓ yeah.

Steve Vaughan (47:11)
Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's great to have the variety of guests that

we have and well done Nick, you tend to source most of the guests. So great job there. So yeah, thanks for joining us Dear Listener. We'll be back again in a couple of weeks time. Until then, happy shooting out there and we'll talk to you soon.

Nick Church (47:39)
Yeah.