I‘m Izabela Urbaniak, a photographer and mother of two playful boys from Lodz, Poland. Since 2012, I’ve been creating a photo series called “Summertime,” which depicts holidays in the countryside (in the tiny village of Lugowiska), carefree childhood, and the joy and happiness of everyday life. These pictures represent summer without computers and TVs – only idyllic nature and playing children.

The series is inspired by my own childhood, when I used to visit my grandmother in the summer and spend my school vacations in the countryside. These days, I just love watching kids play in the countryside – my younger son Antek loves to play with his cousins Jas, Maja and Julia. There’s also my lovely Jack Russel terrier Tosia, as well as a cat and some puppies that belong to our neighbors.

My pictures don’t use much digital manipulation. I only use Photoshop to make the pictures black and white and to increase contrast. Most of all, these photos were taken simply through careful observation. I shot these photographs with a Canon Mark III and 50 mm f 1.4 and 85 mm f 1.2 lenses.

Photography had been the passion of my life for several years, until it became my profession. Now I can confidently say that my work isn’t actually work because I really love what I am doing.