Luc Kordas

The Poland-born photographer has captured stunning candids of New York for an upcoming book. Steve Fairclough discovers more...

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Although he hails from Poland, Luc Kordas has made his home in New York City since 2014. It was that same year that he began a long-term project, ‘The New York Chronicles’, photographing across all the boroughs of New York City. The latest fruits of this visual storytelling endeavors are in his new book, New York Unseen.

Although Kordas is not exclusively a street photographer – he’s also a highly accomplished portrait, travel, and documentary photographer – his vivid (almost exclusively) black-and-white street images convey a range of emotions and a clear depiction of where he is. The themes that come across include loneliness and, essentially, how a big city can engulf those living in it and isolate people within a metropolis of millions of humans.

To find out more about his career and motivations, Digital Camera spoke to Luc Kordas via Zoom from his New York City home…

What drove your initial interest in photography?

It came about organically. I was living in London in 2004 and worked with a guy who had an SLR camera. I borrowed it and, curiously, he disappeared into thin air, so I was left with his camera. I started experimenting with taking my first pictures on a film camera. Before, I’d taken pictures on holidays, but never taken it too seriously. I started reading about it, and read my first book about all of the technical stuff.

So you’re self-taught?

Yeah.

Was anybody, in particular, an inspiration to you?