Rider’s Lens: Wojtek Buczek’s Photography

Words and photos by Wojtek Buczek

Hello, my name is Wojtek Buczek. I was born and raised in the eastern part of Poland, where I recently moved back after 20 years of living in Warsaw and working in the film/ photography industry as a light technician. Although photography has always been important to me, I decided to keep it as a personal journey instead of focusing on making a living out of it.

• 
• 

Beyond my love of bikes, I enjoy running and climbing, but after suffering a back injury from a car accident, I switched from running to walking long distances. I like drawing lines on maps and connecting the dots while using photography as a tool to better understand what I see and make it more familiar. With age, I became less of a city person and more of a nature person. This led me to move out of Warsaw and back to live right on the edge of the oldest forests of Europe (Białowieża National Park), where I love spending time with my wife and friends.

• 
• 
• 

I studied photography at the School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. After graduating, I moved to Warsaw to work in the commercial/fashion industry, but I very quickly discovered that it’s absolutely not my cup of tea. Discouraged from pursuing a career in photography, as it was just so opposite to my values and interests, I started taking longer and longer breaks from work and spending more time alone, preferably walking or biking. When I began to document these trips, it allowed me to connect with my photography in a more meaningful way, and that’s how my site WalkieNoTalkie.com started.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

The longer the trip, the better it feels, and with the opportunity for more time, I find the inspiration to be more abstract in a visual way to tell a story. A friend of mine says that the eye is a muscle—you have to train it to see better. Obviously, it’s easier to take pictures of an “exotic” trip where everything is new and all the senses are highly stimulated, but my favorite visual stories are the ones where I can look at my own backyard in a new way and somehow see it differently. To this end, I’ve found that a from-the-saddle perspective is the simplest way to see familiar and unfamiliar places from a different point of view.

• 
• 
• 

Going forward, Turkey is very high on my list of places to visit, but I’d mostly like to visit my wife’s home country of Canada, which is too vast to even comprehend on paper. As for future work, I like to keep it low-key, but an opportunity to shoot a project that can help or make an impact on others to do some good in the world would be ideal.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

In about two weeks, I’ll have an exhibition of my work from my trips to Morocco. I’m hoping the show will help raise funds for Moroccans in the Atlas Mountains who were affected and suffering after the recent earthquake. Shortly after the show, I am traveling to Spain with my friend Max to ride from Bilbao to Gibraltar.

Wojtek’s Photo Gear

My fast and light kit is a Ricoh GR3 and/or GR3x, which I can carry in a stem bag for easy access while on the go. My full-sized camera setup is a full-frame Sigma FP with a Sigma 35mm f/2.0 lens and a Ricoh GR3 as a backup. I typically carry the Sigma on a sling strap while riding.

Image Breakdown

Suwalszczyzna, Poland. August 2023. Karol Kamyczek asked me to take some shots of him a few days before his bike/kayaking trip from Poznan to Berlin. At the time, I felt like a horse after shooting a Western movie recovering from a marathon of intense weeks of work, but he convinced me to go for a quick spin. I remember him going down the road and me thinking, “Gosh, this is going to be so cliche.” So, I waited and took this photo at the very last moment. After that, everything seemed effortless.

Karol is my favorite rider and a big inspiration to get on the bike. He is a reminder that no matter how much life can bring you down, how little you have slept, or how busy life seems to be, there is an instant recipe for feeling alive again. The ingredients are simple: nature, friends, and bikes. It feels so good to simply move your ass with no purpose other than to see what’s on the other side of the hill. This shot was taken in my favorite place in Poland, Suwalszczyzna, which is like a Polish Tuscany in my eyes. It is the northeastern tip of Poland, with many hills and clean, deep lakes.

You can see more of Wojtek’s work at WalkieNoTalkie.com or on Instagram @wojtekbuczek.

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...