The Motorcycle Portraits: Marta Zajchowska

The Motorcycle Portraits is a project by photographer/filmmaker David Goldman, who travels the world making documentaries, and takes time out to interview interesting people in the motorcycle scene, wherever he might be.  The result is a single exemplary photo, a geolocation of his subject, and a transcribed interview.  The audio of his interviews can be found on The Motorcycle Portraits website.

The following is a portrait session with Marta Zajchowska, a motorcycling world traveler better known as half of a (former) globetrotting motorcycle duo, Look Around the Globe. David Goldman caught up with Marta in Warsaw, Poland, on Aug 14, 2023, and asked her a few questions about motorcycling.  The following are her responses:

Introduce yourself:

Hello, I’m Marta Zajchowska. I think I’m better known in the motorcycle scene as a half of ‘Look Around the Globe.’ We are now here in Warsaw, in my flat. And about motorcycling: I’m a traveler, yes, I can say that. And I have ridden more than half of the world on a motorcycle. I started in 2015 as a full-time traveler. But for now, I’m staying here in Warsaw.  So I decided maybe to quit long travels, and it’s not a full-time job for me now.

How did you get started with motorcycles?

I started it in 2012: I decided to take a driving license and pass the test because I saw a lady ride in white clothes on a white bike.  I watched her and said ‘Okay, I want to be like her.’  So I decided to start my adventure with motorcycles. But in the beginning, it was something simple: I bought a bike for my 29th birthday, an adventure bike like this. And I started riding, but not far away, just around Poland. But then a few years later, I met my ex-boyfriend. And he decided to, you know, put the energy into traveling, so I decided to travel with him, at first sharing one bike. After a while we decided to travel on two bikes. So in the beginning, when I started traveling long distance, I was just a pillion passenger.

We switched positions too, of course. But in the beginning, I worried that maybe I’m wasn’t too good a rider, so I decided to be a pillion. But then my nature proved stronger than my fears. I wanted to be a rider, a real one. So for the past four years, I started to ride my own bike. And then after traveling a lot on the road and around the world, I decided to practice my off-road skills: I did a few courses and now I’m an instructor for motorcycling as well.

What is a great experience or memory you have from motorcycling?

When we are talking about the greatest experiences on a motorcycle, it’s something totally different. Because you are in a society which is so open.  You recognize the other motorcycle guys, you don’t even need to see them, you can feel them, that they are somewhere around.

And that society is so open. Because of motorcycle travels, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people everywhere: in Africa, in South America, in North America. Actually, on each continent, there was something new.

And I know culture, I know history. I liked feeling the taste of each place I was visiting. And people along the way invited me in, and we spent some time together. Each country taught me something else. This is not just about what I’m seeing [like a tourist]. I was observing the consequences of their history.

So for example, I’m from Poland, and we’ve got a sad history, as do many countries. It was not always like it is now, and there were always wars in the world. Each country has their own problems. As travelers, as tourists, as people from a different place, we don’t really know about their story. It’s only when we talk with people that we totally change our understanding. And that’s the thing: OK, now I can tell that history to another person, and that person will say it to another one. And we spread the good vibe, the real information. So this is what I what I’m thinking about traveling. So that’s the most important thing. I saw a lot of sad things along my way, and then I was trying to understand the situation.

When I came back to Poland, I realized that my life is not so hard.  On each continent, there are countries that are really poor, where war is still ongoing.  And we all should reflect on our lives, if we need all these material things, and if we need all these super hyper modern things which we are buying.  Each time when I came back to Poland after such a journey, the most important thing is love, friendship, family, health and so on.

What do motorcycles mean or represent to you?

Motorcycles mean freedom for me. And what does that mean? I mean freedom. This is something you can feel each day: you wake up, you don’t have a plan, and then in a few minutes you start riding. You feel the air, and you know that this is what you like to do, and ‘no plan’ is the best option. So you are just going straight. You can stop anywhere. You can talk with people everywhere. You don’t have any time rules.

I gave myself a few months, so I wasn’t in a hurry.  Traveling in a hurry is not my favorite. So when you have more time than just one week, two weeks or three weeks, you can just feel that the world is yours and the freedom is around you. You can decide what you want to do. Today you are here, tomorrow you can be somewhere else. You are sleeping in the tent. You cannot predict the weather.

And this is the adventure, because that is what motorcycles mean. It’s an adventure.