PAULINA OTYLIE SURYS THE DARKROOM OF FAIRY-TALES Text: CHARMAINE AYDEN Depicting a hazy reality reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland meets the sordid backstreets of Victorian London; Paulina Otylie Surys shoots acid-etched elegance. So romantic that you can almost hear the Philharmonic Orchestra striking chords in each unsettling image, Surys is renowned for a macabre eroticism that is brilliantly devastating. When did your interest in photography begin and was it ignited by a significant photographer? I have been fascinated by photography and still images since I can remember. As a child I would spend days browsing my grandparent’s family albums. The photographers were unknown, it was the softness of the light, the wonderful sepia hue of albumen prints and hand colouring that made looking at these images one of my sweetest memories. The way they felt in my hands, thin and precious, with decorative edges and the smell of old paper mixed with the leather covers of the albums. Also, our house has always been filled with art books, being raised in post communistic Poland in the 80s I did not really have much chance to waste time watching TV. Instead I would escape into books; especially reading or admiring art albums (the photographers who particularly caught my attention was Witkacy, Nadar and Jan Saudek). So that was how the passion was ignited, learning from ancient photography and master painters combined with inspiring trips going walking in the countryside (I tended to leave the house without telling my mother or grandparents, silently sneaking out). From these
interests I evolved a desire to capture the things I saw myself by the use of photography. I certainly agree with Brooks Atkinson’s comment that “The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking”. However, photography at this time was an unrealistic prospect since we did not even have a camera in the house (I had my first analogue camera when I was at university). Your images are a hybrid of vintage and modern techniques, toners and inks; how do you strike a balance? I try to keep a balance between the present and the past in my work; the ideal results are timeless hybrids, combinations of the old and the new, photography and painting, fairy tale and nightmare. The results may be slightly disturbing and yet, however weird it may sound, I think it is really important to take the viewers outside of their comfort zone and common aesthetic expectations. Viewing the photograph should be a spectator’s very own journey.