Kasia's photography

Happy Birthday, Abby

2012-01-25T20:01:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T13:06:00.001-06:00

The wonder of Hazel

2011-11-18T15:52:00.000-06:00

Inspiring

2011-10-18T17:00:00.002-05:00

MPW63

2011-10-13T12:46:00.005-05:00

"The Meeker Family: Sowing a New Pattern"

While maintaining the tradition of farm and family, Mat & Valerie Meeker also create a new set of opportunities and a more modern lifestyle for themselves and their children Emily, 12, Corbin, 7, and Addison (Addie), 2 ½. Mat partnered with Valerie’s father, Bob Higgins, on his farm 12 years ago and now is the primary responsibility holder for approximately 1200 acres of row crop, a few hundred head of cattle and a rock quarry. Bob is in the process of retiring but is having a hard time leaving the work he loves. Valerie is the owner of a successful portrait photography business, working from a studio built on the back of their farmhouse property. While basic domestic responsibilities fall to her, she fully discloses her lack of cooking skill and also commits herself to running her own business and keeping the family wheel turning supporting the interests of her and Mat’s three children.
Maintaining proximity to family is important to Valerie and running the family farm brings a great sense of contentedness to Mat who was raised on a hog farm in Iowa until his very early teenage years. Mat is not hurried or anxious in his daily farm routine nor is Valerie harried or stressed. The couple has solved the current dilemma facing most farms which seem to be having more and more trouble turning over their land to the next generation to continue on with their traditions and building on the established. They have “sown” a new pattern of living for themselves focusing on a way of life that fulfills them and the result is a more modern version of American life on the family farm.

I couldn't find a place in the sequence of the story for this image but really loved it.

I spent a week at MPW (Missouri Photo Workshop) two weeks ago. I trekked down to Clinton, MO from KC not having any expectations...except I wondered if I would fail, if I would suck, if I would find a story. It wasn't until I finished the workshop that I realized I set myself up by having the expectation of struggling. Being around other photographers scares me and it delights me and it comforts me...all depending on the day and my mindset. In this case I was mostly terrified. As a photographer I am absolutely at peace behind my camera and lenses, in the world of working a situation and finding THAT shot. I love everything about the whole process. But when I stop to think about it, about the photos I need, the photos I should be getting, the stellar work my fellow photographers produce...that's when I become terrified. There's this imaginary mountain of greatness that I place the people around me on and when I'm in my own, happy shooting world and I feel when I get THE shot, for a minute I allow myself to be on that mountain. But it's a slippery slope and I end up feeling like I constantly need to prove myself to myself - I feel like I'm always just at the foothills. My faculty was intimidating as hell to me - because of who they were, what they had achieved as photographers and because I put them on that mountain, at the very top. That affected how I interacted with them and for a few days after the workshop I was angry and hurt because I felt like they were working hard to just push me through and pat me on my head on the way out without talking me through the whole "make better pictures" process. But they were nice (mostly) and supportive. I shut down from the get-go because of my being intimidated by them, which of course means I put myself in the position of feeling like I was being sent on down the line. I felt like I should only talk to them when I had a resolution to issues I was having or at least something worth hearing...I didn't want to be the whiner. I guess putting myself down in my own head is setting myself up for not growing, not getting better, not really putting myself in a position to make pictures that make me feel like I belong on that mountain, in the club so to speak. One of my faculty members told me (twice) that she didn't think journalism was the place for me. Ordinarily I dismiss people who question my ability to do something. I react strongly and most of the time work my ass off to prove them wrong - who the hell are you to tell me what you think I can or can't do? You have no idea who I am and what I am capable of and quite frankly it's none of your business so if you think your place is telling me what my limitations are of course I'm going to take your opinion and make you eat it. But somehow it's different with photojournalism and was especially with this particular instance. I don't know if it was because it was after a week of being really hard on myself and over thinking EVERY aspect of the workshop or maybe because I was questioning myself as well and came to the workshop weakly, to get affirmation that this was where I belonged, hearing this from an established, bad-ass photographer made me absolutely shut down. Ultimately I think what she saw was someone who was questioning her own value and while the community of photographers is tight-knit and we all love talking shop, it IS competitive at the end of the day. You have to want to compete with yourself and all the petty talkers who tell you that you can't, shouldn't or won't make it to the mountain top. I will be thinking and thinking about this workshop and the dozens of other lessons I learned or have yet to learn about what happened. In the immediate time being, I think I have learned that you really need to want it, you really need to give yourself grace for the screw-ups and support to produce great work and you really need to listen to no one but yourself.

Jaxon, 6 months

2011-09-14T01:45:00.003-05:00

Mia Sage

2011-08-28T16:50:00.001-05:00

50 years married...

2011-08-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

Modeling at AI

2011-07-28T09:40:00.002-05:00

Sadly, the Arts Incubator of Kansas City closed its doors three weeks ago. Kyle and I have been members for 5 years where he designed and built furniture and I worked on photo stuff from time to time when he worked in studio. I'm putting together a slideshow, a sort of farewell to AIKC, but in the meantime here's a photo Lesia and I took messing around in one of the communal loft spaces while helping Kyle move his stuff out of his studio a few weeks back.

kid worries

2011-07-20T13:19:00.002-05:00

What I wouldn't give to be 4 again and my biggest concern be that my coloring pen ran out of ink...

Nebraska Sandhills

2011-07-19T13:18:00.004-05:00

Urban Farms & Gardens Tour - FOOD

2011-07-09T13:16:00.005-05:00

I volunteered with Cultivate KC (formerly the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture) recently for the bi-annual Urban Farms & Gardens Tour. Among pre-tour events ticket taking, helping with promotional materials distribution and taking photos at the farms during the tour, I also had the opportunity to eat some really delicious and local food. YUM.

Aemilia

2011-06-08T16:28:00.002-05:00

Beth Ann, Viola Sabine and Hazel Jane...

2011-04-26T21:23:00.006-05:00

models in the making....

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ava!

2011-04-24T22:02:00.002-05:00

Peyton, take 1

2011-04-16T23:04:00.002-05:00

Beautiful, blue-eyed, 1 year-old Peyton wasn't quite so sure of me at first during our photo session Saturday morning....

Jaxon Stark

2011-03-22T23:12:00.002-05:00

Courtney Christine Henn

2011-03-20T13:21:00.007-05:00

Rodeo

2011-03-13T17:19:00.004-05:00

...diggin' in the archives from last summer

Wyoming

2011-03-08T17:58:00.003-06:00

Louis the muppet dog

2011-03-03T10:20:00.002-06:00

Jaxon Stark

2011-02-26T12:06:00.001-06:00

Born 12:12am February 25th
6lbs 7oz
<3
photo session 1 of millions....

Lovely Lisa

2011-02-26T10:58:00.005-06:00

There is no ghost so difficult to lay as the ghost of an injury. ~Alexander Smith

Big John

2011-02-26T10:35:00.001-06:00

Andy at the seaside

2011-02-12T10:29:00.002-06:00

John & Alicia's Wedding

2010-12-30T23:43:00.003-06:00

Harleigh Barry

2010-12-05T18:41:00.002-06:00

making chicken salad

2010-10-28T17:32:00.004-05:00

more tobacco

2010-09-10T14:58:00.002-05:00

Redneck Fest

2010-08-31T08:22:00.001-05:00

Kyle and Chris at the bean

2010-08-25T22:43:00.002-05:00

Tobacco Harvest

2010-08-24T18:15:00.003-05:00

story in progress...

Oval Office of Photographers

2010-08-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

Micro Wrestling

2010-08-04T12:50:00.001-05:00

yes, really...

County Fair in the 21st Century

2010-08-02T11:54:00.004-05:00

At the end of fair week, this 4-H'er dozed off with his dairy cow while on his cell phone.

Fair Food Eating Contest

2010-07-30T18:53:00.009-05:00

1 corndog half
1 pulled pork slider half
1 eggroll
1 cookie dough
1 piece of cherry pie
1 chocolate cupcake
1 chocolate milkshake
1 ziploc full of fried tater skins
2 handfuls of cotton candy
15 doughnut holes
20 fried cheese curds

Rock County Fair Royal Court Coronation

2010-07-27T21:32:00.003-05:00

a few snaps in Chicago

2010-07-27T15:30:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted in ages...here's a quick picture of my cousin, Chris, in Chicago a few weekends back.

graduation

2010-06-17T15:26:00.001-05:00

12% Unemployment

2010-06-04T15:48:00.005-05:00

Since losing her job with LeMans Corporation in Janesville last November, Ginny Oldenburg has been struggling to keep up with mortgage payments and the needs of her two teenage children, Morgan, 15 and Blayne, 14. She has said that one of her biggest concerns is having lost the respect of her children.

I've been working on a series of portraits and pictures for a large set of stories running in the next week or so on unemployment in Janesville, WI. Since the GM Factory closing two years ago and a number of factories and companies reliant on GM's business closing as well or moving their jobs to Mexico, there is over a 12% unemployment rate (I apologize for the previous typo of 20!) in the city now. I wanted to delve into this to do a larger photo package but was told there isn't enough time. I'm disappointed I can't work on something so rich with visual opportunities to show as well as tell the community what their neighbors are struggling with as well as how some are moving on and making do. Standard portraits it will be, I suppose.

SWAT training

2010-05-19T15:26:00.000-05:00

Garden Friends

2010-05-19T15:11:00.002-05:00

Antique Motorcycle Club in TX Hill Country

2010-05-04T12:05:00.007-05:00

I went on a four day road run with my dad, his friend Howard and Howard's son, Darrel, in Texas Hill Country a few weeks back as a part of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. The group is comprised of men and a few women, many 60 years old+, with a love of bikes which must be older than 1980 to be considered antique. There are a few road runs per year, hosted by a chapter in the area of the run and they each last three to four days. Each day a route of about 80-150 miles is mapped out for the bikers with stops at small towns, diners, shops and museums in between. Most of these guys (and gals) get together once or twice a year to take slow routes on back roads in the most beautiful areas of the country and reconnect over their love of motorcycles. It was a pretty awesome and restful experience.

missing my family

2010-04-26T23:44:00.001-05:00

portrait, art, portrait

2010-04-07T23:51:00.002-05:00

who's the new girl revisited

2010-01-19T21:19:00.002-06:00

Fruit Compote

2010-01-05T23:09:00.003-06:00

Dublin

2010-01-04T22:38:00.002-06:00

smiley eyes

2009-12-16T04:28:00.002-06:00

Lena, 6 months old

Kyle gets tattoo'd

2009-12-16T04:15:00.002-06:00

i'm done

2009-12-04T01:48:00.009-06:00

This is the layout I designed for my Master's Project book. I have thousands of outtakes and plan on doing a multimedia piece as well. I want to keep working on this project, go back to Poland at some point and shoot more than just 4 subjects to give a broader view of who the 'new' and 'old' Polish woman is. But for now, this is enough.

Boguty, Poland

2009-11-24T23:03:00.001-06:00

Sunday in the country: church and not Walmart

2009-11-18T22:38:00.005-06:00

fall fruits and harvest, pt2

2009-11-13T22:40:00.002-06:00

a few lost outtakes

they're thinking about opening a WalMart in Poland....

2009-11-11T18:53:00.002-06:00

...this isn't it, but a store designed with it's business model/style in mind. These are some images from my Women in Poland project.

Chert Hollow, final product

2009-11-04T13:00:00.003-06:00

Chert Hollow - Final from Catherine Szalkowski on Vimeo.

Polish country life

2009-10-26T10:44:00.002-05:00

catch a wave in Munich

2009-10-12T17:35:00.001-05:00

fall fruits and harvest

2009-10-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

Krakow

2009-09-30T04:06:00.002-05:00

wild mushroom hunting

2009-09-17T04:35:00.002-05:00

or September in Poland or I got my 50mm 1.4 back from repair shop

communion

2009-09-09T12:55:00.002-05:00

eleven

2009-09-06T18:53:00.002-05:00

city woman two

2009-09-03T12:51:00.001-05:00

burning the midnight oil, 2

2009-08-22T17:32:00.003-05:00

A 73 year-old retired civil engineer who refuses to stop working because "my mind would get bored," he says. (yes, my grandfather is sitting around in his underwear while working).

Miss Independent aka City Woman

2009-08-19T07:21:00.002-05:00

kochanie

2009-08-01T07:52:00.004-05:00

"Kocham moje ciotka Kasia jak nie wiem co..."/"I love my aunt Catherine like I don't what..."

-Irena, 4 years old

...this is why I came to Poland.

shooting from the hip

2009-07-31T17:45:00.002-05:00

...browsing the bbc website I came accross this link: http://www.aliasjohnnystiletto.com. The hunting for goboes section reminds one of Andre Kertesz's gorgeous works.

horn accompanied DJ

2009-07-27T06:50:00.002-05:00

Warsaw's 'Old Town'

2009-07-27T06:45:00.001-05:00

meat and potatos aka Country Woman

2009-07-25T10:07:00.004-05:00

who's the new girl?

2009-07-25T10:05:00.002-05:00

fields of gold

2009-07-19T16:54:00.004-05:00

wild boar tracks between a wheat field and a forest in the Polish countryside

catching up on the news

2009-07-15T11:22:00.001-05:00

London

2009-07-15T11:14:00.002-05:00

Justin at Monmouth coffee shop in Borough Market...the best coffee in London, hands down.

modern art

2009-07-06T11:53:00.002-05:00

time machine

2009-07-06T11:47:00.001-05:00

Happy Graduation BBQ

2009-06-16T13:41:00.002-05:00

...better a late post than never!

downtown on Sunday

2009-06-09T14:04:00.001-05:00

First Friday

2009-06-08T14:53:00.002-05:00

the payoff

2009-06-03T02:19:00.005-05:00

My dad worked for nearly 48 hours straight last weekend rebuilding a 1972 Moto Guzzi 750 Ambassador. His passion is old motorcycles and after two straight days of hanging out in his workshop in the basement, as he diligently worked as if there was nothing else on earth that could be more enjoyable, I asked him, "You really love doing this, don't you?" He responded, "I love bringing what some people might think of as 'junk' back to life." We made a plan to go on a road run with the local chapter of the antique motorcycle club in the near future with the newly rebuilt Guzzi and his 1942 Harley.

(yes...that's a small reflection of me in the shadows...still working on that!)

burning the midnight oil

2009-06-03T01:49:00.005-05:00

Argentina

2009-05-25T22:42:00.002-05:00

Jodi's Wedding, pt. 2

2009-05-23T22:39:00.014-05:00

Jodi is my best friend. I've known her since we were 15. She moved to Omaha from Kansas with her sister Carla and by the summer we, (a base group of 4 girls, Jodi, Carla, Jen and myself) were inseparable. As an only child, Jodi became like a sister to me after years of memories, overcoming bumps in the road, love, growth and friendship. I was honored to be a part of her wedding and found myself torn most of the day between wanting to immerse myself in the festivities and sentimental moments and wanting to step back to capture it with my camera. (I think I may have actually annoyed the photographer more than once throughout the day.) At any rate, I'm glad I was able to capture the moments I did and I will always remember this day fondly.

wedding day, 6:00am

wedding day, 11:30am

wedding day, 3:00pm

(...and then my D700 stopped working.)

Jodi's Wedding, pt. 1

2009-05-23T20:33:00.007-05:00

Croom--final edit

2009-05-11T23:55:00.007-05:00

Croom from Catherine Szalkowski on Vimeo.

harvesting in rain

2009-05-01T22:14:00.004-05:00

17-1, waiting for #19

2009-04-30T00:59:00.007-05:00

Pre-Prom Prevention Programs

2009-04-29T12:09:00.004-05:00

St James High School sponsored a drunk driving prevention program that featured a skit played by high scool students, local police and fire department officials and hospital workers. Courtney played a student who "died" in the mock car accident.

Courtney and Ethan

2009-04-24T11:44:00.002-05:00

people without people

2009-04-22T13:18:00.000-05:00

Missouri sunset

2009-04-22T11:52:00.003-05:00

St James High School Senior, Regional guard champion, college bound Courtney...part 1

2009-04-20T16:29:00.006-05:00

Making a Living

2009-04-17T12:32:00.006-05:00

Chert Hollow from Catherine Szalkowski on Vimeo.

Not so terrible 2's

2009-04-06T12:43:00.003-05:00

[almost] certified organic

2009-04-02T15:21:00.005-05:00

An inspector came out to Chert Hollow to review their land, organic practices and go through handfuls of paperwork. He gave Eric and Joanna a glowing review, claiming on the form he will submit for final review in the certification process that the couple "live and breathe organic."

i protest

2009-03-31T00:19:00.003-05:00

*(Disclaimer: mom-- don't freak out)

I went to Buenos Aires to visit my friend, Sarah for a week. Sarah is doing her project on The Disappeared and the Dirty War in Argentina during which some 30,000 Argentine citizens have been estimated to have passed through internal concentration camps set up by military government dictatorship during a time when state terrorism reigned. Relatives of the victims later uncovered evidence that some children taken from their mothers soon after birth were being raised as the adopted children of military men. Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group founded in 1977, has been demanding the return of these kidnapped children and working towards this goal since the organizations creation. On Argentina's Memorial Day on March 24, the group hosted a march on the Avenu de Mayo. I went with Sarah to see the parade which I was naiively surprised to see was more political than I had expected.
The parade was crowded, we quickly seperated and I went picture crazy with the freedom to slip in and out of the crowds and wind my way through the marchers and parade participants. After an hour of this, I was in front of a group shooting when I saw out of the corner of my eye a stir of people. There were two groups of men about 20 feet away crowded around a man who was beating another man over the head with a club moving quickly towards me. I moved quickly with the crowd out of the way--it was a knee jerk reaction, to run the other way. I quickly stopped myself and remembered I had a camera in my hand and a purpose so I turned around and starting shooting again, all the while thinking my heart was going to pop out of my neck. I was far back from the group considering where I was when the scuffle began and while the fight broke up rather quickly, I kept shooting. None of the images I took turned out particularly well--snapshots really. I was scared shitless. At one point I noticed a white something in my frame. I looked around and realized a small, pretty Argentine girl was yelling at me, presumably for taking pictures. Her boyfriend was trying to get her to stop yelling at me. I think the hand in the last frame might be hers. I desperately wanted to try to ask her if she spoke any english and if she could tell me what was happening because I didn't understand, hoping that my obvious vulnerability might soften her to me and my curiosity might be satiated. I stood rooted to that spot in the street motionless, wordless, not shooting for 20 minutes. Then I wound my way towards the front of the parade, walked off onto a sidestreet and into one of the only Starbucks in Buenos Aires to sit. (The top image I actually took after everything happened on my way back to the front of the parade to show Sarah the group which the commotion came from to try to get information or some sort of understanding about what happended).
A million things were going through my mind during and after. One is that despite how argumentative and contrary I am, I HATE confrontation--it makes me literally tremble and want to run the other way. But the thought ran through my mind, 'good photo opp.' I couldn't figure out later, though, why I was taking pictures. When photographers say they take pictures of violence to advance a cause or save a life, is it really true? Because my first thought wasn't, "shoot to make a difference in someones life or political agenda," it was, "shoot because there is violence and blood and I have a camera and want to be a photojournalist." This may sound wrong or terrible but it is honest. David said that some people want, crave and need that adrenaline rush of conflict and that is why they shoot it and do it well while others really don't like it. I don't think I am cut out for this kind of work--I am not one who enjoyed that adrenaline rush in any way, shape or form and clearly didn't know what to do with the opportunity to shoot this kind of situation when it was handed to me in broad daylight in a relatively non-threatening situation. I felt like a scared klutz with a camera. I might be overreacting but this experience shook me to the core.

fence building

2009-03-19T18:06:00.003-05:00

Impressionism

2009-03-17T17:42:00.002-05:00

this image reminds me of the 'feel' of spring

Orchid Exhibit

2009-03-15T22:33:00.005-05:00