Jakub Stanek – The man without past
“The feeling that he was born in the wrong place and in the wrong time has been with him for his whole life.
In his childhood he had no ideas about the world around him. He was born in a small town in southern Poland. He was growing up in the 1980s, a time of political and economic changes that did not affect him in any way. The transformation reached his hometown only towards the end of 1990s. His overprotective mother is his only source of information about the world outside. When he was 7, she sent him to church to serve as an altar boy. Initially the parish priest did not want to admit the boy, explaining that he only takes in boys older than ten years of age. He consents only after numerous pleas on the part of the mother. His mother, a practical woman who has her feet on the ground, is despotic, intransigent and rejecting all opinions that differ from hers. She manages to convince the priest by telling him that it is the only chance to save her son from moral degradation that his peers may drag him into. For whole days they roam the town looking for fun. On many times she saw how ten and twelve year olds were skulking in archways, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes.
[…]
He knocks on massive, oak door. He opens it slowly. He sees a priest – his true friend, whom he has been visiting for four years now. Encouraged with a gesture, he walks into a dark vestry. The air is filled with smoke from the church incense. In a corner of the room, by the window, the parish priest is sitting with his legs crossed thigh over thigh in a massive armchair. He grins at the boy and invites him to sit by his side. The boy complies. He is treated with sweets and sacramental wine, which goes to his head. They sit together and talk for a longer while. This visit would be the same as all the previous ones, but for the fact that the priest very slowly and gently puts his hand on the boy’s thigh.
[…]
One week later he already understands. He repeats the tests, hoping against hope that they will yield a negative result. The sentence remains the same. AIDS. Also this time they go through the illness together.
It is 2015. He is sitting on the windowsill and blows cigarette smoke. He looks at the city of his dreams. He lives on.” – Jakub Stanek
Jakub Stanek was born in 1988 in Warsaw, Poland. He studied photography at Academy Of Photography in Warsaw and Philosophy At University of Warsaw. In 2014 He started Sputnik Mentoring Program. For many years he has been conected with Milan where he worked on documentary and comercial projects. In 2015 he has been choosen to 50 the best polish photographers „Debuts 2015”. Stanek is trying to bring new perspectives to viewers. He explores untold subjects. During documentary projects he is trying to start intimate dialogue between himself and characters. He also aspires to add layers od visual and emotional information based on cultural knowlage. All his interests and inspirations evolve around the modern human, yet. Photography is always the ultimate form of reflection. He talks about the phenomenon of fashion in his own conceptual way, which leads to a smooth transition into the art domain.
Full text and project here: http://www.stanekjakub.pl/#!the-man-without-past/cgwq