Born in Poland (1993), lives and works in London, Paulina Korobkiewicz earned her First-Class Honours B.A. Degree in Fine Art Photography from Camberwell College of Arts in 2015. Her work has been the subject in numerous exhibitions internationally and has been featured in many publications. Korobkiewicz has been nominated for Magnum Photos Graduate Photographers Award 2017; shortlisted for Belfast Photo Festival Open Submission 2017; selected for Creative Review and JCDecaux Talent Spotting Guide 2015. Her photobook “Perspectives” is the winner of Camberwell Book Prize 2016. See more of her work here.

Interviewed by Jing Zhao

We are looking at a fairly recent body of work from the book “Perspectives”, which is produced in collaboration with Camberwell Press in 2016 and published in June this year. Could you describe its context?

This project is an outcome of a two-year collaboration. Upon graduating in 2015 I was awarded Camberwell Book Prize which supports a proposal for an experimentally orientated publication, through a series of workshops, design consultation and production budget. I received great support from the ex-tutors and Camberwell Press. It was inspiring to see the work come together and slowly achieve something we were all pleased with.

I chose to work in this format because of how dynamic and flexible it is. The book offers an opportunity to expose the viewer to the body of work rather than single image, maintaining my control over the order in which the images are seen. Organising, sequencing and creating relationships between paired images reflects the process of shooting in the street; finding elements of everyday urban views and cropping them into photographs.

Was there a particular reason why you start exploring color and composition in photographing daily street views?

The project is about the process of looking. So far, my work has been a reflection of my surroundings. I document objects that enter our ordinary field of vision and assemble them into studies on colour and composition. Forms we process passively acquire new meaning and are re-imagined into deft arrangements through organising, sequencing and creating relationships between paired images.

It happens to me frequently that when looking at objects after a certain amount of time, they become somehow alien. The “reality” thing become questionable. In your work, I got the same feeling. I am curious, would you say the process of making those photographs a more intuitive moment or it required you making a lot observation?

I would say it was both. I am very observant in general and I believe you have to be sensitive in that way to notice the intuitive moment when an ordinary object becomes alien. There are many factors that help create that moment and this is what I look for when I’m photographing. The moment when I feel confused, when a thing becomes questionable; is the moment I take a picture.

Did you think about how the viewers would react to the work while making this project? It is necessary for photographers to create work that is valuable to the audience?

Definitely, the audience is crucial. Projects I enjoy the most are the ones that inform me or inspire me in some way, leave a long-lasting impression. I hope that the architectural nuances embedded in the book’s format will shift the viewer from simply observing the images to interacting with them, retracing the steps and paths of the everyday. My intention was to extend the viewer’s experience of the photographs featured within it - looking at urban spaces and discovering them in a different way.

Since you already published a book, I assume that this project is completely finished.

Yes. This project is completely finished but my photographic exploration doesn't stop there.