Wojtek Serowik, Take Care of Yourself17 Images
“Love always comes with pain, but for me it’s kind of beautiful,” says the Polish photographer, Wojtek Serowik, whose recent photo series Take Care of Yourself explores this very sentiment. From the carefree pleasure of spending time with loved ones to intimacy’s darker hues and all that lies in the shadows between, Serowik explores the varying forms relationships can take. Each image serves as a fragment of memory; one that openly invites its viewer to approach and interpret it from their own unique perspective “These are stories filled with beauty as well as tainted by pain and suffering,” he says.
Take Care of Yourself came after two difficult years for the photographer, marked by loneliness, disconnection and disappointment in love and in friendship. Having compartmentalised his pain for so long, distracting himself with work and study (Serowik is currently studying an MA at the National Film School in Łódź), the photographer decided to confront his most difficult thoughts and feelings in an effort to heal.
He looked outwards onto the love lives of those closest to him, who, too, navigated the nuances of their own relationships. “There’s a saying in Poland that goes: ‘Smutek dzielony z drugą osobą jest połową smutku, a radość dzielona z kimś jest podwójną radością.’ It means ‘Sorrow shared with another person is half the sorrow, and joy shared with someone is double the joy,” he says. “Simple, but it works for me.”
It’s his friends who pose as the subjects of this series. “We might be young,” says the 21-year-old Serowik, “but we’ve experienced love, along with the tough emotions that often, or always, accompany it.” He hopes this series will serve as a vestige that years from now will remind them of what they’ve been through and all they’ve shared together.
Serowik blurs the lines between raw observations of social situations and staged recollections of them. “I’m drawn to the tension between aestheticised visuals and the authenticity of documentary storytelling, incorporating elements of both to challenge conventional narratives,” he says. It’s here, at the nexus of spontaneity and conscious curation, that the photographer establishes his style. Shooting on an analogue camera, his creative process extends to the darkroom where he experiments with different printing techniques.
The photographer was absorbed in photo books and magazines from a young age, drawn to imagery that records and communicates the honesty and depth of emotion. He takes his cue from photographers like Nan Goldin, Nobuyoshi Araki and Sally Mann, whose work he first saw at Love Songs at Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris in 2022, a group exhibition exploring the intimacy between lovers. “This exhibition was very influential in defining the direction I wanted to take with my own work,” he says.
By exploring the theme of broken hearts together, we ended up healing our own – Wojtek Serowik
This series is accompanied by a love letter that captures the unanimity of heartache and yearning, written by the Paris-based writer and artist Natalia Zamrowicz. Wotjek also directed the project in collaboration with the costume designer and stylist Marysia Duda, who used the garments to aid the storytelling, ensuring they felt authentic, harmonious and empathetic of the characters and stories depicted in the portraits. “We both felt a strong need to express ourselves on the subject and confront our experiences,” says Serowik of Duda. “I didn’t feel like I was losing any individuality or authorship by inviting her to co-direct. Actually, I realised that through our discussions and by experiencing these tough feelings together, we were reaching much deeper thoughts and insights.” He adds: “It’s quite funny… by exploring the theme of broken hearts together, we ended up healing our own.”
Serowik and Duda exchanged and analysed anecdotes past and present, applying their thoughts and feelings about these stories to the images they created. “We had many conversations about these topics from the very beginning, and this continued throughout the entire process. We talked a lot about stories we had heard or imagined that could take place between the characters,” he says. “This evolved into sharing more personal stories of our own. We wanted to create a space that felt safe and honest – where the characters could just be present, telling these stories with us.”
Art direction Wojtek Serowik, Maria Duda; photography Wojtek Serowik; styling Maria Duda; makeup Ewelina Klećkowska /Bulletproof Warsaw, Sonia Kieryluk; hair Ilya Bogdanovich, Ewelina Klećkowska; photo assistant Łukasz Biernat, Mikołaj Marciniak, Ewa Januszewska; production Julia Borowiecka; print A10 Darkroom, Igor Rębiś; letter Natalia Zambrowicz; title design Tesa Duda; talents Zofia van der Kroft/ Art Faces Models, Aga Cioska /Milk, Igor Biały, Mikaela Sandell, Maria Duda, Kuba Jerzak /Selective Management, Rysio Stańczak, Benedykt Rogala, Kinga Stachowiak, Julianna Sroka-Kierończyk, Kacper Ignaczak, Ludwika Ostrowska/Art Faces Models, Michał Wójtowicz, Weronika Targońska /ModelPlus, Julia Borowiecka /Art Faces Models, Mateusz Pijanowski /Pinokio Models, Maria Magdalena /Model Plus, Łukasz Biernat, Ewa Januszewska. Special thanks Sandell Archive Stylling, Zator, Wanted Goods, Garaments, the5concept.
