Swell is a story of a break-up and of unaccepted loneliness. About going back to the same places and memories that we can’t forget. At first it was supposed to be a documentary project about the Baltic Sea. So a plan was drawn up, the form was thought through, and the places to be visited were marked on the map. The photographs came about during trips together. The last joint photo was taken a little later—and a portrait on a negative ruined by the lab technician. The project no longer mattered, and the outings to the sea were now only an escape from daily life. 

Over a dozen colour “postcards” have survived from the first trips. They are the beginning of this story. There is no end yet. We’re about half-way.

 

 

Mateusz Sarełło (born 1978, Warsaw)

A participant in the “Masterclass” mentor programme of the 5shots Academy, he graduated from the one-year-long Photojournalism Workshop at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw. He participated in workshops organised by the Napo Images agency and Yours Gallery, and is a Member of Spółdzielnia Dokumentalna (Documentary Cooperative), as well as a collaborator (as curator’s assistant) of the proFotografia Institute in Poznań. His awards and distinctions include the PDN Photo Annual, the Prix de la Photographie Paris, the  International Photography Awards and the FotoVisura Grant. A finalist of the Lucie Foundation Scholarship and Grand Press Photo, he has exhibited at Pauza Gallery in Krakow, the Museum of Printing in Warsaw, the Leica Gallery in Warsaw, the Obok ZPAF Gallery in Warsaw, the 2piR Gallery in Poznań, High Voltage Gallery in Warsaw, and Splashlight Studios in New York. Publication credits include PDN – Photo District News, Flip Magazine, 5Klatek, and Private Photojournalism.

 

 

 

 

Grand opening: 17.05.2012; 7 p.m. 

Muzeum InĹźynierii Miejskiej, ul. św. Wawrzyńca 15