‘A photograph shows only what was actually in front of the camera. Paint, on the other hand, has no such limitation,’ says Grzegorz Mart, one of Poland’s best-known photographers specialising in classical music. In an intimate conversation with Olga Kisiel-Konopka from OKK! PR – the artist talks about the decade he spent behind the scenes at the National Philharmonic and the NOSPR, the magic of open-air festival rehearsals, and his latest artistic project, in which he uses acrylic paint to fill the empty spaces between sounds.
Olga Kisiel-Konopka: You’ve been photographing music for years. Yet, in the most literal sense, music cannot be photographed. What exactly are you photographing when you point your camera at an orchestra?
Grzegorz Mart: Exactly, you can’t photograph music. So I suppose I photograph everything that happens whilst it’s being created. People, gestures, tension, concentration. Sometimes something utterly minute, which lasts a second and is actually irrelevant to the concert itself, but suddenly takes on significance in the photograph. I don’t think whilst taking photographs: ‘Now I have to show the music.’ Rather, I look at what’s happening. Music makes people behave in a certain way, and I suppose that’s what interests me.
OKK: You’ve been associated with the National Philharmonic for over a decade, and similarly with the NOSPR. What have you begun to notice over the years that you didn’t see before?
GM: At the start, I suppose I was more impressed by the whole picture. The huge orchestra, the stage, the conductor, the lighting. I wanted to take a good, striking concert photograph. After all these years, I find myself looking at the small details more and more often. Someone glances at someone else, someone’s waiting for their cue, adjusting their sheet music, putting their instrument down. I’ve also simply started getting to know the people. I have a rough idea of how they behave – who’s expressive, who’s very calm. And that’s interesting, because in theory, after ten years, I should be a bit bored with it all by now, but the opposite is true. I see more than I did at the start.
OKK: Rehearsals are particularly important to you. What happens between the musicians then, which the audience won’t see during the actual concert?
GM: I really like rehearsals. I think I like them even more than concerts. At a concert, everything’s already set. The musicians take to the stage, the audience is there, and a certain ritual unfolds. A rehearsal, however, is still work. Someone interrupts something, repeats it, or chats to someone else. People joke around, get bored and concentrate. For a photographer, it’s a brilliant moment, because not everything is ‘for show’ just yet. You can see how the music is actually created. The audience later gets the finished product, but I’m also interested in all the chaos that came before.
OKK: The exhibition ‘Music, Action!’ is more than just a photography exhibition. You go back to the photos in your studio and apply acrylic paint to them. Why did photography alone cease to be enough for you?
GM: I don’t know if I’d say it stopped being enough for me. Photography is still the most important thing to me. It’s just that at a certain point I felt like doing something else with the photograph. Photography, however, always shows something that was actually in front of the camera. Paint has no such limitation. I can make a gesture that doesn’t actually represent anything specific, and yet it changes something. And I suppose that’s why I started combining the two. Not to make the photograph prettier. More to return to it a second time, in a slightly different way.
OKK: You don’t paint over the musicians or their instruments; you intervene in the space between them. Is that where you find the music?
GM: In a way, yes. I’ve noticed that I don’t really feel the need to paint over people. The person is already there, and so is the instrument. I don’t want to alter them. I’m more interested in that empty space between them. Of course, it’s only empty in the photograph. During a concert, there’s sound, movement and energy in it, after all. So, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, you could say that I’m painting in what the camera didn’t capture.
OKK: When you’re working on a photograph later on, do you still remember the sound of that particular concert?
GM: Yes, though not always the specific music. More often I remember the situation. I look at the photo and recall that it was very loud or, conversely, that there was complete silence. I remember the light, the people, sometimes even where I was standing at the time. Photographs really trigger my memory. That’s probably why I find it hard to treat them solely as images. Behind each one, I still have my own personal memory, which the person looking at the photograph obviously doesn’t know about.
OKK: What fascinates you more: the music itself, or the person at the moment they’re creating it?
GM: The person. Definitely. Music brought me there, and without it these photos wouldn’t exist, but when I have a camera in my hand, I look first and foremost at people. I particularly like those moments when a musician is so focused that they stop controlling how they look. They aren’t posing, they aren’t thinking about the camera. Sometimes it’s a hand gesture, sometimes a facial expression or a glance. It lasts a second, and I think that’s exactly the second I’m waiting for.
OKK: You currently have two music-related exhibitions in Warsaw. At the Philharmonic, you’re showcasing the world you’ve been observing for over ten years, and at Nobu, photographs from ‘Break in Classic’. Are these two different stories?
GM: They’re very different visually, but for me it’s actually the same story. The Philharmonic is a very specific space. There’s the stage, the audience, the ritual of the concert. And I’ve known that world for a very long time. ‘Break in Classic’ is completely different. We’re in a park, people are sitting on the grass, the light and the weather are changing, someone’s walking by, something’s happening nearby. There’s a lot more chance involved. But I’m looking for similar things in both places. So perhaps they’re simply two different chapters of the same story.
OKK: Is photographing music at the National Philharmonic or the NOSPR different from photographing it at Break in Classic? Where do you have greater freedom?
GM: At the festival, I definitely have much greater physical freedom. I can walk around, change my position, move very far away from the stage or get right up close. I can photograph the musicians together with the audience, the trees, the whole surroundings. At the Philharmonic or the NOSPR, you have to be much more discreet. I can’t suddenly step into someone’s line of sight during a concert just because I’ve spotted a great shot. There are certain rules, and you have to respect them. But, paradoxically, these restrictions are quite fun too. When you can’t go where you want, you have to find a shot right where you are.
OKK: After so many years spent with your camera amongst musicians, what are you actually still looking for?
GM: I don’t think I know. And that’s fine. I’m certainly no longer looking for the perfect concert shot. After all these years, I more or less know how to take one. I know where to stand, what to expect, and when something spectacular might happen. I’m much more interested in the moment I don’t expect. Something strange, accidental, sometimes even imperfect. A photograph I wouldn’t have thought of myself beforehand. Perhaps that’s precisely why it still interests me. After all these years, it still happens that I look through the camera and see something for the first time.
Both of Grzegorz Mart’s exhibitions in Warsaw are open to visitors until the end of September 2026. We highly recommend them!
You can find more information about the exhibitions and events at:
- The artist’s official website: www.grzesiekmart.com
- The artist’s profile on Teatr Rozrywki: teatr-rozrywki.pl/grzegorz-mart
- Details of the exhibition at the National Philharmonic: filharmonia.pl/muzyka-akcja
- International Music Festival: https://www.breakinclassic.pl
See also: Art | Culture | Events | Recommended | whiteMAD on Instagram
