For most people, commuting through rainy weather is a dreadful thought. Traveling by bicycle or motorcycle in the rain is even worse: tires splash mud and grime onto your shoes and clothing, the road is slippery and dangerous, and water wreaks havoc on both bicycle and motorcycle parts alike. In the photo series Short Flashes by Wiktoria Wojciechowska, the Polish photographer manages to capture the utter misery of Chinese cyclists commuting in the rain.
对于大多数人来说，在阴雨天气上下班是一件很不愉快的事情。而在雨中骑自行车或摩托车就更糟糕了——轮胎溅起的泥浆和污垢会弄脏鞋子和衣服，路面变得湿滑危险，雨水还会侵蚀自行车和摩托车的配件。在摄影系列《Short Flashes》中，波兰摄影师Wiktoria Wojciechowsk，用镜头捕捉了中国人们在雨中出行时的痛苦。
Synonymous with rainy weather in China, the flamboyantly colored raincoats depicted in Short Flashes are an all-too-common sight in every Chinese city. But for Wojciechowska, who had never been to China prior to her moving to Hangzhou, these colorful cyclists immediately piqued her interest when she arrived. She began shooting the project as a means of curing the loneliness she experienced, and it also served as her personal method of connecting with a culture and people that she was still unfamiliar with.
在中国的各个城市，每逢下雨天，你总能在街上看到人们穿着色彩张扬的各式雨衣，骑着自行车穿梭于城市的大街小巷。而这个在中国很常见的场景，对于Wojciechowska这个初来乍到的外国人来说，却一点也不普通。Wojciechowska住在广州，但这也是她第一次踏足中国，所以这里对她来说依旧是一个非常陌生的环境。为了缓解一个异乡人的孤独感，以及拉近和这座陌生城市的距离，Wojciechowska选择拿起相机，开始了这个名为《Short Flashes》的摄影项目，记录着雨衣之下形形色色的人们。
Reminiscent of street photographer Bruce Gilden’s infamous technique of leaping out in front of strangers with his camera and a bright flash, Wojciechowska also used a flash for her candid portraits, but with an approach considerably less aggressive than Gilden’s. With her DSLR and speedlight, she would patiently wait on the side of the road until the right subject came along. The use of a speedlight and a slow shutter speed allowed Wojciechowska to both freeze each subject while still conveying a sense of movement. Like other talented photographers, Wojciechowska has ingeniously transformed the mundanities of daily life into an undeniably compelling photo series. In 2015, she won the Leica’s Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award for Short Flashes.
这一组照片让人想起街头摄影师Bruce Gilden那“臭名昭著”的摄影方式：突然跑在陌生人面前，用相机和耀眼的闪光灯拍下照片。同样地，Wojciechowska也是将热靴闪光灯直接对准了她的摄影对象，虽然她的方式没有Bruce Gilden那么“野蛮”——她会先将单反相机和闪光灯在路边架好，然后耐心等待合适的摄影对象出现。使用闪光灯和较慢的快门速度让她在清晰定格人物的同时，让照片营造出动感。一如其他才华横溢的摄影师，Wojciechowska巧妙地从日常生活的场景中捕捉到一系列出色的照片。2015 年，她凭借《Short Flashes》赢得了Leica Oskar Barnack Award 摄影奖。
One particular quote from Wiesław Myśliwski’s novel A Treatise on Shelling Beans resonated within Wojciechowska’s mind as she shot the project: “There are infinitely many of these faces I carry inside myself. Conceived in short flashes. I don’t know whose, where, or when. I know nothing about them. But they live in me. Thoughtfulness, gazes, sorrows, pallor, grimaces, bitterness – they live in me, detained like on photographies.” Short Flashes is available for purchase from independent publisher Bemojake.
当Wojciechowska 拍摄时，她的内心会想起Wiesław Myśliwski 小说《A Treatise on Shelling Beans》中的一句话：“在我的内心，存在着无数张面孔，就像是用闪光灯近距离拍下的人像照片。我不知道他们是谁，身在哪里，或是在什么时候。我对他们一无所知。但他们就存活在我的内心——他们的沉思、凝视、悲伤、苍白的面孔、鬼脸或是怨恨——他们就像照片一样，印在我的内心。”《Short Flashes》目前正在独立出版社Bemojake的网站发售。
