ARTIST STATEMENT

Mateusz Sarello "Swell"

Road.

Winter.

Void.

Void of everything that is important. I am trying to think about the "road." I cannot. I am completely exhausted. All in all, I am going only because of the weather. The prospect of wind, snow, and my flashes on the beach did not let me sleep. Besides, I am afraid of the few days of thinking only about Her, and this way I will have the Baltic Sea. My Baltic Sea. Instead of.

"Swell" is a story of a break-up and of unaccepted loneliness. About memories that we can't forget. At first it was supposed to be a documentary project about the Baltic Sea. A plan was drawn up and the places to be visited were marked on the map. During the trips to the Baltic I was accompanied by my girlfriend, until the moment of our parting. The parting changed me and I was no longer able to continue the project according to previously designed plan. I started going back to the places where we were together. Here the project ends, and a personal story begins.

My story "Swell" has been published as a book by the Instytut Kultury Wizualnej in Warsaw.

http://mateuszsarello.com/book

You can watch video documentation of the book "Swell" using this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83dlkxmoBoM

BIOGRAPHY

Mateusz Sarello was born in 1978 in Warsaw. A Graduate from the Academy of Photography in Warsaw. He is the author of the book “Swell”, which was chosen as a finalist in the Best Photography Book Award at the Pictures of the Year International in 2014, received 3rd Prize at the International Photography Awards in 2013 and Honorable Mention in the Best Photography Book from Central and Eastern Europe 2013-2014 at the European Month of Photography in Bratislava in 2014 and was chosen for “Best Books of 2013” list by Photo-Eye. His story “Swell” won Grand Prize at the Prix Photo La Quatrieme Image – residency at the Cite des Arts Paris and the City of Paris Grant that allowed him to accomplish his next project in 2015. His awards and distinctions include the Center Santa Fe Awards, the Lucie Foundation Scholarship, the FotoVisura Grant, the Photolucida Critical Mass, the Celeste Prize, the PDN Photo Annual, the FotoWeekDC International Awards, the Prix de la Photographie Paris, the International Photography Awards and the International Photography Festival Organ Vida Prize. A finalist of the Lens Culture Exposure Awards, he has exhibited at the Cortona On The Move Festival, the Copenhagen Photo Festival, the La Quatrieme Image Photo Fair in Paris, the Manifesto Festival in Toulouse, the Filter Photo Festival in Chicago, the Guernsey Photography Festival, the Chobi Mela International Fesitval of Photography in Bangladesh, the FotoWeekDC in Washington, the Fotofestiwal in Lodz, the Photomonth in Krakow, the International Photography Festival Organ Vida in Zagreb, the Third Floor Gallery in Cardiff, the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, the GAF Gallery in Hannover, the Leica Gallery in Warsaw, the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, the Gallery Nine in Belfast and Splashlight Studios in New York. Publication credits include Lens Culture, GUP Magazine, Foto8, PDN – Photo District News, Blow Magazine, Archivo Magazine, Der Greif Magazine, F-Stop Magazine and Prism Magazine.