I started photographing in secondary school and have stayed that way ever since. I was born and raised in Białowieża, where I started my adventure with photography in the surrounding primeval forest. The camera has accompanied me on my trips to the forest and on increasingly further trips and expeditions. I have travelled the entire photographic ‘combat trail’ — from the Smena 8M through the iconic Zenith, medium format, manual and increasingly automatic SLR cameras to digital photography. For the past few years, owing to advances in technology, I have begun to fulfil my childhood dream of capturing the beauty of nature from the air, and filming. I photograph whatever I happen to like best — whether it is a landscape, a fungus, a plant, a detail, a larger or smaller animal. I am more attracted to the form than the species, although for the images illustrating publications, I aim to combine one with the other. When photographing the Primeval Forest, I try to capture its uniqueness, potency and permanence, which I hope to have been able to portray in my photo album — Puszcza Białowieska ZAWSZE (Białowieża Primeval Forest ALWAYS).
Grzegorz Okołów — the author of several hundred popular science articles on Polish nature, originator and co-author of several photo albums, dozens of brochures and folders. Laureate of the Visions of Nature, the Art of Nature demonstrations competitions, and the winner of the Pomeranian Meetings with Diaporama. Privately, the director of a Cultural Centre in one of the villages in the Warta Mouth area.
