My first professional assignment, in 1966, was a portrait of an actress. I was sixteen years old at that time.
Since 60’s I took many portraits of famous people, who obviously were older than me. It is therefore not astonishing that it became a trend for a while, that my photographs were and are published with the press articles and books about them after their death.
Some have been used for many years after they died, because their work didn’t die – books are still published, their music is performed and influence of those individuals is still relevant to us.
The first time I thought about it was, when a great cellist, Kazimierz Wilkomirski, at the conclusion of our session told me: "This portrait will be my image after I die".
A similar opinion I heard from Michael Vyner, a music entrepreneur of amazing sensitivity.
I understood the reason behind it when a celebrated photographer, Alexi Lubomirski, wrote to me about my portraits that they are “… Extremely soulful…”
I realised that these portraits convey the intensity of those extraordinary people, in spite of the reality of them no longer present.
It may be a coincidence, that I am writing those lines while listing to a song by Johnny Cash “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies”.
This portrait is of Bohdan Pociej – a writer and philosopher (January 17, 1933 – March 3, 2011)