artiste d'mon >>> renata ratajczyk

Light Vision
A journey into the world of surrealism and fantasy

Interview by: silverio pantalla

Who is Renata Ratajczyk?
I am photographer and digital artists based in Toronto, Canada.

My main specialty is fantasy/surrealistic concept photography combined with digital art.

I take pictures and often later enhance them in the computer to add special effects and achieve more of a surrealistic look.

What is your art?
I take pictures in the studio or on location and later I often add other elements to these pictures - like for example different backgrounds, props, textures or other elements created on computer.

My final images are often composed from several different photographs with some other extra special effects added to them. I like fantasy and that's why my artwork is often fantasy related.

Do you choose your subjects or do they choose you?
I choose my subjects, but sometimes my subjects choose me too - in this case I photograph people who have asked me to take their pictures (portraits, nude studies, actors/models portfolios).

Describe your typical day at work?
There is really no such thing as typical day. Each day is different. Sometimes I might be shooting for most of the day in studio or on location.

Other times I could be working on computer doing digital work (enhancing photographs) or it could be just marketing meetings day (contacting new potential clients and keeping in touch with established clients, sending promotions, refreshing my portfolios or website with new images, meeting with clients, art directors, models etc.).

How would you describe your work?
There is lots of variety. Part of my work is very creative and requires lost of imaginations and developing new ideas, constantly upgrading my skills, other part of the job is not so exiting and it looks more like office work (writing letters, making phone-calls, sending portfolios and promotions, filing pictures and doing some not so exiting job on computer).

What is your most important goal in life as a person and as an artist?
I would like to create as many beautiful and moving images as possible, so they will be left behind for people to think about and enjoy when I am gone.

If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you meet and why?
I would like to meet Leonardo DaVinci - he was so talented in so many fields. He must have been certainly a very interesting man to talk to.

I also would like to meet most of the artists from Pre-Raphaelite group of artists. I think we have many things in common.

How is the art scene in Toronto, Canada?
It is not so easy to be an artists here. There are some many established artists who seem to be getting most of the attentions, assignments and public funding.

For many other artists it is hard to get noticed, to be established and to receive any form of financial support. We certainly have here many great artists worth of attention of the international audience and waiting to be discovered.

Who have been some of your main influences as an artist and a person?
I feel that I am particularly under great influence of the group of Pre-Raphaelite painters. In their works they were also often relating to mythology and otherwise tried to portray people with their feelings, spirituality and dreams.

For me, as for them it is important to show not only what is outside, but also the spirit or the soul of people that I photograph.

I try to speak through my artworks about things that are close to me and probably to most people, like for example longing for perfect beauty, love, friendship, eternal youth, perfection, happiness, contact with nature, achieving our dreams and other things that are hard to put in words.

What are your immediate plans for the future?
I am not very good at planning, but what I would like to do this year is to create more images from the "Astral Travels" series. Then I would like these artworks to be published as a calendar and maybe series of greeting cards.

I also would like to have more of my work published on book and CD covers and to work on more assignments in this field.

Please visit Renata's website.

Please send Renata your comments here e-mail.