Maria Mochnacz's best shots

Maria says: 'This is a photo of Polly. It's from a series that formed part of the video for Angelene, a song from Polly's album Is this Desire?. The images were supposed to resemble passport photos, as though the machine had gone wrong. So the pictures were stained to distress the Polaroids. I sprinkled some with bleach or put them through in the washing machine. The video is just a series of slow dissolves through the images with only one small portion of real movement at the end with Polly mouthing the last line of the song.' Photograph: Maria Mochnacz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This was my Christmas card last year. It's a smashed Christmas tree bauble ... happy Christmas!' Photograph: Maria Mochancz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This was taken at Coney Island, New York. I'd just got myself a new toy, a cheap plastic 35mm panoramic.' Photograph: Maria Mochnacz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: "This is John, back when he was mine." Photograph: Maria Mochancz/guardian.co.uk/Maria Mochancz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This is my friend Michelle, as seen through my sunglasses, driving through France on the way to photograph a theatre group.' Photograph: Maria Mochnacz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This would be the one that people recognise. It was the cover of Rid of Me, Polly's second album, and was taken in my bathroom in Bristol. I knew I wanted to make the water on Polly's hair like a strange sculpture, almost solid. I took it in pitch black with a small flash. My camera was butted up right against the wall in my small bathroom with no room for me to look through the viewfinder. I had to tell Polly roughly where to try and direct her gaze. My flatmate at the time was banging on the door, desperate to use the loo, so I had to shout at him to hang on, we were making art!' Photograph: Maria Mochnacz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This was for a band called Christmas, one of the bands formed by my friends Rob Ellis and Tim Farthing. I wanted to try and get one image made of a whole contact sheet. I think I did five full rolls and this was the one that worked best.' Photograph: Maria Mochnacz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This is the Warsaw-based band No!No!No! who I worked with last September. Despite spending two long days with them, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I've learned that I love working with people who have a collaborative spirit, people who want to be photographed. I don't use digital cameras, so I'm not testing along the way. I use 35mm Olympus cameras and old toy cameras that are a bit hit or miss. Part of the fun for me is not knowing quite what you might get when you see the prints for the first time.' Photograph: Maria Mochancz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'I took this for a fashion shoot for a French magazine called Biba a few years back. It was in a bar in Paris, and the magazine put on a party with booze and dressed everyone up while I went round with my video camera filming everyone. I then took the video home, projected it and re-photographed my favourite frames. It's a bit convoluted, but I love the proces. There were a lot of people and it was going to be a lot of pages. I also gave out disposable cameras for the party-goers so I could use their flash light as well.' Photograph: Maria Mochancz/guardian.co.uk

Maria says: 'This was taken on a fashion shoot in Bristol, although it was actually for a Swedish magazine called Bibel. It was the first time I'd been asked to do fashion so I thought it would be fun to make the clothes and bodies see through. I asked the model to hold her pose for, say, seven seconds. I then kept exposing for another couple after she had walked out of shot.' Photograph: Maria Mochancz/guardian.co.uk