Kuba Ryniewicz: photography through the scope of realness

Kuba Ryniewicz is a Polish-born photographer, based in Newcastle for the past 18 years. At the end of September 2022, he will be having his own solo exhibition called “Parallel Stories From Here”. The exhibition will be focused on showing people’s resilience in Newcastle, during different challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic or Brexit. It will also be a “portrait of the city”, while also covering other varied topics.

Kuba Ryniewicz in his studio

Growing up, photograpgy has always surrounded him. As a kid, his uncle – who’s a photographer – would let Kuba be his model. His uncle had a darkroon in his basement, and so by the age of ten years old, he already knew how to develop photos.

Coming to the UK, settling was difficult, but for him, life gave him opportunities and he took them. “If I stayed in Poland, I probably wouldn’t be a photographer”. Even though photography was present all throughout his upbringing, he first studied philosophy in Poznań, while also doing some photography. It’s only when in Newcastle that he decided to study photography .

Kuba cutting up newspaper articles’ headlines for photoshoots

Even though he grew up in Poland, he doesn’t dwell on it. “When moving to a certain country, you have to adapt to a new pace of life. And the pace in Poland is very different than in the UK, so it’s almost like shifting yourself and it makes you into a very different person, you know. I might walk differently than I did in Poland”.

When asked if his Polish heritage has an effect on his work, he confirms that yes, but he doesn’t go out of his way to take inspiration from it. Having lived in the UK for a while now, he doesn’t like to restrict what he does to a nationality. Once, he was even told by a Polish photographer “oh your photos are really not Polish” which struck him a bit, and also made sense, as he studied photography in the UK.

He explains the place of his Polish heritage in his work:

Nonetheless, for him, no matter where you live, the most important is to be “able to have a critical voice”. “I live here but I still criticise what happens in Poland and vote in Poland, as much as I criticise what goes on here”.

When asked about his art and why how people come into his photographs, one word sticks out, the “realness”:

That is why, even when doing fashion photoshoots, he likes to put people first. Even though, he says “don’t get me wrong, I love my clothes”, the most important is always to show a mix of real people within these photoshoots.

In his photos, a sense of togetherness, unity and community definitely shines. This is something he gives value to: community. As part of the LGBTQ community, the power of community for him is “the strongest form of resistance to the system” as, “there is a power in finding people you can be honest with that make you a stronger person, so that you can then give that power back to other people”. “As a queer person, you experience friendship on another level, and it’s almost like an extra sense”.

After the world experienced such difficult times with the pandemic, it will always be important to show the realities of different people to acknowledge every people for who they are and what they go through.

If you are in the area of Newcastle at the end of September, you should definitely check out his new exhition.