Both these fields influence each other,
creating something that can be described as „psychological photography” or
a „photography enriched with psychological threads”.

The name of the project „Ego” is quite concise and enigmatic, and at the same time
reflects very well what the spectator can expect to see at the exhibition.
„Ego” is a cycle of portraits and a movie in which the main characters are women. In
this case the feminine element, in spite of unquestionable ćsthetic values,
constitutes a certain „universe”, a means to an end to presentation of issues
related to the true nature of man,
his social position and relationships to the outside world.

(…)”.

Anna Wolska „Psychofotograficzne penetracje Jacka Jędrzejczaka w bydgoskiej Galerii Miejskiej” (Psychophotographic penetrations of Jacek Jędrzejczak in the Municipal Gallery of Bydgoszcz)

Ability to record moving pictures on a surface has been causing a big commotion among scientists and researchers from the very beginning. Neither Daguerre nor William Henry Fox Talbot analysed the possible applications of their inventions. Important thing was to reflect the existing reality on a given media as fully and permanently as possible. It’;s hard to describe everything that has happened during that 169 years in the history of photography. One can surely claim, though, that we are a visual society. Picture, either a still one: a photo, press, poster, Internet; or a moving one: movie, interactive media is used almost everywhere. So, but for the inventions of the positivist scientists, the Spirit rover would have never landed on Mars, and it would be impossible to carry out many life-saving endoscopic operations. I chose those two extreme examples, so distant from everyday associations of classic photography.
This universality of image results in mutual penetration and associations with fields that seemingly have nothing in common with this medium Such a collision, penetration, took place among others in Jacek Jędrzejczak’;s project „Ego”. The author, a photographer and psychologist by profession, decided to combine both his passions in the project. The presented photos are portraits of women, who using mirrors play a kind of visual game with their reflections. The peak point is a movie showing one of the characters acting out a mini show of one viewer and one actor at the same time.
The sound is unreal, and, after a while, also the poses of the model become exaggerated as she simpers. After a deeper analysis, the spectator starts to understand that it’;s the movie that’;s the key to understanding the whole project. For „Ego” isn’;t about astonishing the audience with form, ćsthetic or raise pejorative feelings. Only when analysing the movements and gestures we understand that we deal with a kind of ancient tragedy, where gestures and words were exaggerated in order to reinforce the emotional influence on the viewers and force them to think and ask themselves some important questions.
So, what does the title of the project mean? Ego is a term describing the structure of every personality. Realising this project, the author proposes a thesis that, regardless of masks, play of appearances, every person truly cares and loves only for themselves. Such behaviours can be deeply hidden or even denied from our consciousness. Only a mirror, being alone with oneself, helps us reveal our true countenance. Therefore the project uses the motive of a mirror and reflections. In this case, the mirror plays a role of a filter, which helps looking into the soul of a presented character.
With Jacek Jędrzejczak’s works, we deal with a particular image within image, a multiplied portrait, where subsequent reflections and emotions of presented characters are overlapping.
The author proposes another thesis: that excessive egotism is one of the reasons of loneliness. Therefore, in crowd scenes, each of the characters is fixed on her own reflection, and there’s an emotional barrier among others.
Why the photos present women alone? For the author, a woman is a means of conveying a certain universe – disregarding the ćsthetic and cultural associations of the comfort of the author’;s work, his good contact with the models, so in the case of the „Ego” project, gender doesn’t play an important role.

Anna Wolska