Kasia Bens is a photographer based in Manchester whose latest project In Depth has led her to explore new photographic techniques…

Flowers and fruits are the most commonly used objects in the still life photography. They are appreciated for their beauty, simplicity, colours, shapes or textures. There are thousands of photographs of them, some really good, like those from Irving Penn or Nobuyoshi Araki, but majority of them lack creativity, making those fantastic objects bland and rather boring. ‘In Depth’ is a series of photographs inspired by work of Jo Holland and the effect of  extensive research about alternative process in photography.

I have used an enlarger and an out of date Polaroid film to create surreal photographs forcing the viewer to look at those objects from the completely new perspective. Using the out of date film resulted in faded colours, which added a vintage look to my images.

Doing this project not only allowed me to explore new techniques, but also made me step out of my comfort zone and stretch my abilities. I specialize in portraits and documentary photography, but I would love to make this project a permanent part of my practice and an extensive part of my portfolio.