Go. Go fast. Go as soon as possible!

Why did you decide for the exchange during studies?

I left after second year of studies on the architecture department in Łódź, because if Erasmus found a year abroad, then why shouldn't I make use of this opportunity? New experiences always bring new ideas and allow for refreshing your mind. In the worst case scenario, I would meet people from all over the world (which means: free sleeping wherever I go) and I would learn new language. Erasmus was the period of most "holiday-like" 12 months in my life. Now I regret that I lost a year on not doing anything special, but maybe this year was necessary for me to understand what I really want to do next. During my stay there I started my first photoblog. Initially just for my friends in Poland, but later it developed.

Why did you choose Italy?

I had been to Italy several times before I left, and each time I liked it more and more. This allowed be to believe that Italy has everything that is necessary to have a good life - relaxation, nice food, probably the biggest cultural wealth in Europe, language that I wanted to learn, and well, I always liked brunettes. After 5 years I verified this vision a bit, but in general everything is still the same.

What made you stay in Italy for a longer period of time? Was Milan a conscious choice or a pure coincidence?

During my first year there I stayed in Pavia, a little campus city, 40 km from Milan. Everything was beautiful, holiday-like, everyone was riding bicycles and after seeing all this I could not imagine going back to Łódź and living with my parents. However, the problem was in the fact that I got bored of Pavia after a year. I was raised in a city and the city propels me, inspires and charges me, blah, blah, blah. Moreover, Milan is close to everything else and that is why it seemed perfect to me.

In this case, do you plan to return to Poland for good?

We will see. So far I like it here. It is possible that I will get bored in some time and I will move somewhere else, I am thinking about Warsaw. I go back to Poland twice a year, during holidays in December and for one week of vacation in August. I always visit our capital city and thanks to the hospitality of guys from Club Collab, each time I go to new places, I meet new people that are working on new projects, and each time I am impressed by the cultural offer. In several years, Warsaw surely will be a hot place on the map of Europe.

Could you give us five reasons, especially connected with work, because of which you would decide to stay in Italy even longer?

My five reasons for staying in Italy were not connected with work at all. Work came later, thanks to coincidence and luck, which of course contributed to the fact that I stayed. If a guy that came to Milan and does not speak Italian very well has a chance to work for one of the most popular magazines there, then it is very interesting what might happen in the next 10 years. The remaining 4 reasons are the same as the ones because of which I decided to leave. If they had been connected with work, then I would probably have stayed in Poland. I see my sister, who is not even 25 years old and works 24/7, co-runs graphic studio and each time when she calls me, she talks about an order from bigger and bigger clients or about new exhibition.

My friends from studies in Poland have their own architecture studios, friends from high school have contracts without time limit, people in my age have 5-digit salaries and their own apartments, and they go to some tropical islands during their holidays, etc. And I shared a room with another person just three months ago, I travel to work (contract on specific work) on a shabby bike, but I have to watch out, because I am not registered for the local Social Insurance Institution, etc. Probably in several years I will want to stabilize my life, but so far this is not the most important aim in my life. No, I am not a hippie.

You studied architecture, but now you work as a photographer. What made it prevail?

I almost am an architect, because I don't have a diploma yet, but I am working on it (really, mom!). After all of those years on the university of technology it turned out that working in AutoCad is not a very exciting thing to do, and when I take photos, everything can happen. For example, last weekend I was in Bologna, where Benji B and Onra (I am a fan of both) were giving a short lecture about Red Bull Music Academy and I went there to take a series of their portraits. If everything goes according to the plan, next week I will go to Brussels to Pa/per View Art Book Fair, and in two weeks time to Hamburg, to prepare a series of photos documenting office life of the employees of some luxurious and prestigious brand. In the meantime I also have a fashion show planned and I am also trying to organise a trip to Munich, where I could take photos of a new product which will be presented during Milan Design Week. There are not so many attractions in AutoCad for sure.

How is this all related to what you wanted to do before going to Italy? Did something change?

Everything changed after leaving, starting with what I eat on breakfast, through music to which I dance in a club, ending with people that I go out with. Of course, before I left I wanted to become an architect, but then I got to know a new part of the world that I liked very much. To be honest, the longer I stay there, the less I am interested in architecture (that is probably why I still did not defend my master's thesis).

And what are the differences in possibilities in your profession between Poland and Italy?

I don't know, because since this topic does not concern me, I don't live in Poland. However, I think that if you are good, work really hard and have some contacts and a little bit of luck, chances really are the same. Warsaw and Milan, in the age of the internet and Ryanair, are not that different from each other as it may seem.
How then, in three sentences, would you encourage me to participate in student exchange?

Is there still anybody that needs convincing? Was this ever harmful to anyone? When should we go abroad for an exchange, if not during studies?

You also work for the Italian magazine PIG Mag. What is this cooperation all about?

I have been working for this magazine for 3 years. I started as a "do-everything" trainee and I was mostly responsible for assisting the music editor. It boiled down to reading and responding to loooots of emails, translating texts, calling everywhere, organising interviews, taking care of PIG's myspace (it still existed then) and of PIG Radio and doing everything else that no one wanted to do. Later, someday, a photo editor saw my photoblog and gave me my first "real" camera. Since that time, I started to get more and more interested in the work of that photo editor, I tried to help him with everything that he was doing as much as possible. Some time ago he decided to move to New York - this is when I replaced him.

Since last several issues, I am a photo editor and an assistant of the artistic director simultaneously, which means that I decide which photographers cooperate with the magazines, who takes photos of whom/what in a given city, who organises photo shoots if we order them abroad (major part of the magazine). Moreover, I choose photos that are later published and I decide how does the article look like to some extent. I am also responsible for the post-production of the whole magazine and preparing photos for print.

I photograph regularly, usually I take portraits of people that we interview. Besides, I am an "advisor" for the PIG Shop, which is in a test phase for now, but will start operating fully soon. We are working on redesigning the magazine and also on some other publishing projects.

You write a blog too. At whom is it aimed?

I have been running various blogs in the recent years, but, to be honest, I do not know at who they were aimed and who they were really addressed for. They are rather a kind of e-business cards that can be visited by anyone who just wishes to do so. Currently I have 3-4 such e-business cards (whoops!) There is Piotrniepsuj.com, where you can find my photos, both personal and the ones that I take for PIG, and because I do not have a "real" website, this one constitutes a kind of a portfolio of my works. Next we have Troppopiotr.tumblr.com, which was born because my photos archive was getting pretty big and I wanted to show it to someone, not causing chaos in my portfolio at the same time. This blog was never thought through well and that is why it is dying a natural death. I am working on its new, non-blog version, so I hope it will get reborn sooner or later.

I also run Respectthearchitect.tumblr.com, which is a collection of JPGs found in the Internet that are a kind of mood-board of my current activities and a collection of inspirations. Last, but not least, there is also my guest blog on Tenisufki.eu website - first Polish website devoted to sneakers/streetwear. I share there some information about what I do, what I listen to, what I watch... I am very happy that I received a chance of participating in this project, which I strongly support. Visit tenisufki!

Your actions are very interdisciplinary, you are also a DJ - where does this diversity come from?

Hahaaha, that's not true! I was never a DJ. As a matter of fact, 2-3 years ago, together with Zed, who is one of my oldest friends, we organised a short series of parties called "I bet you look good on the dancefloor". To be honest, we were choosing songs, that were very popular in Milan at that time, and which were not yet known to anyone in Łódź. Later Zed mixed them and made them sound just like they were supposed to sound. I only advised him what he could play next, and he played it. These were really nice nights and they constituted a perfect occasion for me to meet with my old friends. Once I was also invited by Oskar from GSDQ to play as support on one of their events in "Jadłodajnia" in Warsaw, but this was rather a one-time thing, not a DJ's job. Nevertheless, I have always wanted to prepare a series of mixtapes, maybe I will have an occasion to do this soon. Maybe I have too many plans?

This interview with Piotr Niepsuj, a photographer and a former scholarship holder of the Erasmus programme, was conducted by Agnieszka Furmańczyk

 

 

 
You are an illustrator. Why did you decide to choose this profession? Did your participation in the Erasmus programme influence this decision in any way?

I have been working as an illustrator since I went to study in Portugal, so one can say that Erasmus allowed me to find my favourite occupation. I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but I decided to take up illustration classes in Escola Superior de Artes e Design. On one hand, because I wanted to satisfy my curiosity (there was no such class on the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź), on the other, because I was scared tha drawing classes will be on a poor level (drawing classes are very reliable in Poland, and also a little bit because of my specialisation of that time - designing publishing graphics.

The list of your projects and achievements is impressive taking into account their number, quality and diversity. Which projects do you execute most often, and which do you like best?

I work in the field of graphic design, in which I include designing posters, visual identification, publishing and illustration. I work in the field of applied graphics most often, creating logos or posters. I realise projects that constitute a challenge or which require broadening my knowledge most willingly. The presence of projects in public space gives me great satisfaction - the view of my posters on poles, prints on t-shirts of people that I pass on the street, illustrations in magazines, murals in pubs.

What made you decide to participate in a student exchange programme? And why did you choose Portugal?

My brother went on an exchange programme to Italy several years earlier and he really liked it. A teaching programme perfectly adjusted to my needs and a encouraging, friendly to foreign students website of the school made me decide to go to study in Portugal.

From time perspective, do you see any specific benefits or "losses" resulting from your stay there? What kind of influence did this exchange have on your work?

I am convinced about huge benefits that result from going abroad - such things as professional and personal development, responsibility training, quickness in making important decisions, freshness are assured. In an artistic profession or similar to artistic, it is important to learn unconventional points of view, to meet new "masters", expand creative horizons - all of this can be made easier by new school, new company. The only disadvantage is the unavoidable feeling of emptiness and stagnation after return, after this accumulation of dynamic, personal changes.

How would you imagine your current situation (for example professional), if you haven't left?

On a much lower level! Besides education and learning new language, going abroad made me much more self-confident, which makes every career easier. Most importantly, I started to run my blog http://aleksandraniepsuj.blogspot.com, which turned out to be a great promotion medium (a professor from Portugal encouraged me to create it).

What was your attitude towards Poland, your school and profession after returning, and what is it now?

Return to the country was a huge knock for me. Everything was stuck in the same moment as it was a year before, it seemed like here, in Poland, just one day has passed. Meanwhile, my mentality was undergoing fundamental revaluation. Of course, I missed the weather, people smiling on the street, the openness and tolerance that I encountered in Portugal. After graduation I moved to Warsaw to refresh my life again and I am very pleased with this decision

How do you evaluate the influence of such exchange programmes on an ambitious, young person?

Much depends on the attitude. Not everyone can obtain knowledge from changes, not everyone takes up challenges, some people miss their home, their families. Going for an exchange programme means abandoning the sense of safety. But for an ambitious person it is an indisputable leap forward.

Students, who are about to make a decision, have a lot of questions. How would you answer to such questions of a modern student of the Academy of Fine Arts as: go? where? is it worth it? what should I take with me?

The most important thing is not only the conformity of programmes, but also the right moment on studies here, in Poland - you should not do this too early, so that you will know your needs already, but also not just before defending your thesis, so that you will not have problems with complementing the differences in studies programmes. Of course, other significant issues include the clime, cultural offer outside school, the relation between living costs and the scholarship. All of these factors influence the comfort of life in new surroundings.

From your album "3069 kilometres away" (whose topic is related to the distance between Portugal and Poland) I conclude that you categorize going abroad as a good thing. Did you encounter any unpleasant surprises or something that you really did not like there?

Not really, maybe except a broken leg and linguistic problems connected with this fact - I didn't know how to describe my pain to an orthopaedist using sophisticated language, so that he would diagnose me properly and set a plaster cast.

Summing up: how, in three sentences, would you encourage me to participate in student exchange?

Go. Go fast. Go as soon as possible!

This interview with Ola Niepsuj, an illustrator that discovered her profession during the scholarship of Erasmus programme in Portugal, was conducted by Agnieszka Furmańczyk