At 22 years old, Karolina Wojtas is among the youngest photographers exhibited at the festival. It should come as little surprise therefore, that childhood and education are at the forefront of her prize-winning series We Can’t Live – Without Each Other (Wojtas is in her final year of study at Łódź Film School). Both she regards as under threat by Poland’s incumbent right-wing populist party, PiS.

Though her images eschew traditional beauty or composition, this year’s jury prize winner is such an exciting prospect precisely because of her unfettered approach and palpable sense of fun. School for her is at once both a time of magical inhibition and one of social programming, where children are conditioned in accordance with state values. Given the degree of control exerted across schools by PiS, with huge overhauls of the education system in 2017, Wojtas’ mission is more crucial than ever.

Finn Blythe: Why did you start taking photographs? How old were you?
Karolina Wojtas: I’ve dreamed about becoming a photographer since I was in primary school, but I was always told that becoming a photographer wasn’t possible for a girl.

FB: So did you not have very many photographers to look up to?
KW: No. I always dreamed of becoming a photographer but because I was born in a small city, we have a small photography club which is only made up of men. So when I was small and used to go there, they would say you can take photographs now but once you grow up you can’t be a photographer because women should have children and look after them, photography isn’t women’s work.

FB: Did that make you want to do it even more?
KW: Yes. That day I decided to show them that it isn’t true.

FB: Childhood is such a big theme of your work, what interest you about childhood?
KW: I think it’s the best time because everything is possible, magic is real and there are no barriers, no one to tell you you can’t do it. When you start your education that magic is killed. So the reason I usually talk about childhood is because I usually take in the things that surround me, I want to talk about things that are common to me. But childhood isn’t the only theme I work with, my work is also about school and the changing system in Poland.

FB: How are the PiS part impacting education in Poland?
KW: They’ve turned everything upside down. Last school year, teachers across the country were striking, the schools were closed for around two weeks so it was a very strange time. I photographed the strikes, which isn’t easy because they don’t want people to do that but I think the school is a hugely important time, everyone spends a lot of time there and it has a huge impact on everyone’s future. I think school could be a kind of factory which produces new people, when there is a bad school system it can produce stupid citizens.

FB: What do you think about your time in school?
KW: When I was in school I hated it, now I’m in my last year in University and I try to understand it and take the best things away from it.

FB: Do you think your time at school has influenced the way you want to show it now through your images?
KW: Maybe but I’ve also read some books on the sociology of school and these books have given influenced my view of school too. Why is it that every school in Poland has bars on the window? Sometimes schools in Poland look more like prisons.

FB: Why?
KW: To protect the children, I don’t know.

FB: Some of your exhibitions are quite immersive, how do you want people to encounter your photographs?
KW: I take photography to be sometime playful and fun so I want people who view my work to be able to play with it, too. I don’t like photographs hanging on white walls that you can’t touch or interact with.

karolinawojtas.com

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