Welcome to Field Notes: My personal Blog on Culture, Memory, and Identity
Kia ora, and welcome. I’m Zac Wichlei. I’m a documentarian, photographer, and creative researcher based in Aotearoa, with connections to Polish, Czech, and Italian migrant communities.
Field Notes is my personal blog—a space to share reflections from a life shaped by movement, memory, and cross-cultural experience. It’s where I write about the threads that tie together my work in film, anthropology, and digital storytelling.
Whether I’m behind a camera, on the road, or reflecting on language and belonging, this blog offers a quieter, slower space to explore the questions that guide my creative practice.
Why I Started This Creative Research Blog
In a world of fast content and endless scrolling, I needed a slower space. A space where I could gather thoughts, share fragments, and reflect deeply on the work I do across disciplines and borders.
This blog exists because not everything fits neatly into a portfolio or academic publication. Some stories begin as scribbles in a notebook, conversations in transit, or passing thoughts that deserve more room to grow. Field Notes is where I collect and share those pieces.
Here, I write as a cultural researcher and creative, but also as someone navigating life between places, languages, and identities. This space allows me to connect practice with process, and to explore how stories are shaped in the spaces in between.
What “Field Notes” Means to Me as a Storyteller and Researcher
In both ethnography and documentary filmmaking, field notes are the raw material—the first impressions, observations, and fragments captured in the moment. They’re unfinished by nature, but they hold the seeds of something meaningful.
For me, the term goes beyond method. It’s a metaphor for how I move through the world: noticing, listening, recording. Whether I’m photographing a quiet street in Aotearoa or interviewing elders in a village tied to my ancestry, I approach my work with curiosity and care.
This blog is my digital notebook: a place for personal reflections, cultural observations, and creative insights. Not everything here will be polished. Some entries will be visual. Others more narrative. But all of it forms part of a wider story: how we understand ourselves and each other through the layers of memory, language, and place.
What You’ll Find on This Interdisciplinary Blog
Field Notes is a space where research meets reflection, and where storytelling takes many forms. You’ll find writing that weaves together documentary practice, cultural theory, personal experience, and visual media.
Topics I’ll explore include:
Documentary and Creative Process: Behind-the-scenes insights into my filmmaking, editing, and photography work—from concept to fieldwork to final cut.
Cultural Heritage and Diasporic Identity: Reflections on ancestry, migration, and belonging across generations and geographies.
Language and Cross-Cultural Communication: Personal essays about learning and living with multiple languages, including Polish, Spanish, Te Reo Māori, and English.
Digital Storytelling and Ethical Technology: Thoughts on how we use creative tools like Adobe, Avid, Squarespace, and emerging tech to tell stories with care and impact.
Visual Essays and Photo Reflections: Occasional photo series or visual field notes from places that inspire or challenge me.
Some posts will be personal. Others will be grounded in research or professional experience. All will be rooted in a commitment to slow media, cultural respect, and meaningful storytelling.
Who I Am: A Creative Researcher Working Across Cultures
My name is Zac Wichlei, and I’m a Polish-American documentarian, photographer, and researcher based in Aotearoa New Zealand. With academic training in ethnographic film and anthropology, and a background spanning digital media, post-production, and cultural research, my work explores how identity and memory are shaped across borders.
I hold an MA in Ethnographic and Documentary Film from University College London and a BA (Honours) in Film from the University of Westminster. I’m certified in Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro, and I work across disciplines to tell stories that honour human dignity, tradition, and lived experience.
If you’d like to know more about my background, practice, and personal journey, visit my About page. You can also explore selected projects on my Work page.
What’s Coming Next on Field Notes
This is just the beginning. Over the coming months, I’ll be publishing a mix of essays, photo reflections, and creative notes; some deeply personal, others rooted in research or ongoing projects.
Whether you're here for ideas, inspiration, or insight into interdisciplinary creative work, I hope you'll find something that resonates.
Final Thoughts and How to Stay Connected
Thanks for being here — truly.
Field Notes is an experiment in slow storytelling and creative reflection. It’s not driven by algorithms or trends, but by curiosity, care, and connection. If something here resonates with you, I hope you’ll come back, read along, or reach out.
You can explore more of my work here, learn about my background here, or contact me if you’d like to collaborate or start a conversation.
If you'd like to follow along with future posts, consider bookmarking the blog or subscribing for updates (coming soon).
See you in the field.
— Zac
