For Kasia Derwinska, creating stories through her manipulated photography reflects a real, internal need that is vital to her emotional wellbeing.
Kasia Derwinska is a self-taught photographer born in Poland and based in Spain. Kasia has participated in numerous photography festivals and has won 1st place at the Tokyo International Foto Awards, 1st place at the International Photography Awards in New York, and 3rd place at the Moscow International Foto Awards 2016 for the ‘Special Effects’ category. Most recently, she placed 2nd in the International Photography Awards 2019 in the category Digitally Enhanced.
People may describe Kasia’s manipulated photography as “surreal”, but she prefers to define it as “magical realism”. Artists like Rene Magritte, Storm Thorgerson (in particular), or Zdzislaw Beksinski inspire her the most. In her attempt is to blur the lines between photography and illustration, she searches for the inspirations in these genres.
The Magic of Manipulated Photography
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Manipulated photography that conveys hopes and dreams and sorrows
Being an artist is not a profession and it has a bit of privileged aspect that I do not like. We all have art inside.
Kasia doesn’t believe that being an artist is something we get to decide. To her, we are all artists. “Every single person has a gift,” she says, “a special capacity for something particular and not necessary for visual creations or music. It can be a capacity to listen to others and give advice that really helps. It can be gardening, baking cookies, or mathematics. What I want to say is that for me the art is about giving the best of ourselves.”
Photography was always present in Kasia’s life since she was a teenager. But, the turning point came in 2011 when she discovered Photoshop and its infinite possibilities to create and reflect her imagination, thoughts, and feelings. Ever since then, her manipulated photography became her therapy, the way to express herself without words.
The world we live in
Kasia’s series “conceptual black and white” is a part of her artwork that she calls “the world we live in”. “It is perhaps the most autobiographical of all the series that I work,” she says. The series conveys messages about her personal relationships; the situations in which she finds herself; her doubts about life and the concept of “good and evil” (black and white); what it means to be human and destiny.
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“Although it is self-introspection,” she says, “I think that many times these are concepts, feelings, or doubts that we all share at one time or another in life. So quite often people identify with them. And as subjective as I may be, I try to stay in the position of a neutral observer and express that there is no only one truth.”
A legacy
To live in the way that I could leave tomorrow
so as to leave a memory behind,
so as to be whole,
and yet only a shadow.
– Kasia Derwinska
To see Kasia’s latest photographs, visit Saatchi Art >
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