Mark Power “This picture is important to me for many reasons. It was one of the first I made during my initial trip to Poland in September, 2004; it would have never occurred to me at the time that I would em
(...) bark on a passionate love affair with that wonderful country and continue to visit it frequently over the next five years.
I had met Konrad Pustola a few days before. He was to become my guide, driver, translator, assistant and, ultimately, a dear friend. Konrad invited me to watch him at Kyudo practice, an ancient form of Japanese archery that originated with the Samurai. I watched him (he’s the figure in the middle) fire one arrow after another into a target of straw in a desolate quarry. The woman on the right was to be initiated that day; she would be allowed to finally fire her first arrow in front of others.
This picture was the frontispiece to the book the project eventually became, The Sound of Two Songs, (Photoworks, 2010), which I dedicated to Konrad. Tragically, he passed away in 2015 at the tender age of just 39, a generous, warmhearted young man, who had grown to become a wonderful photographer in his own right.”
– Mark Power © Mark Power | Magnum Photos
