
Surrounding Countryside (2020-2022)




The reading of philosophical essays entitled „Walden” by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau became a direct stimulus for creating The Surrounding Countryside project. A book that can be seen as a half-novel and half-autobiography presenting writer’s thoughts arising from a lonely and long-term contact with nature.
Aside from the widely interpreted author’s goal that was undoubtedly the criticism of the then Western society, there are also several references to the sounds of nature considered to be an inexhaustible source of experience.
Reading this book coincided with my travels and explorations of the natural world aimed at recording in the field. Hours and days spent in places distant from urban areas yielded frames that are oriented towards the sound recording of the world around us, leaving out any evaluation criteria. The aim of photography here is an attempt of creating ambient sounds with the ears of imagination. I mean sounds which accompany nature rather than interpret it.



