Before she was Gaga

In the summer of 2005, Saniewska happened to be tending bar at the same West Village restaurant where the 19-year-old soon-to-be star worked as a waitress. Just 24 at the time, Saniewska had moved from her native Poland to the United States two years prior with dreams of becoming a photographer. But to support herself, "I started working as a bartender," she recalled. "It was definitely a money thing. I did want to go to school, but I didn’t do research on photography, my focus was to make better money."

2005年夏天，Saniewska 正好与那时才19岁，而将成为巨星的Lady Gaga在同一家West Village餐馆工作，Gaga那时是服务员。Saniewska那时24岁，两年前她从出生地波兰搬到美国，梦想成为一个摄影师。但最开始时为了糊口，她做了酒吧侍者，她回忆，“那只是为了挣钱，我不想去学校，但是我对摄影没有研究，我现在得专注如何更好的赚钱。”

Keeping an eye on her bank account is what drove Saniewska to study accounting, leaving photography to become an amateur pursuit for a while. She went from taking landscape photos of New York City to setting up her own shoots, with Gaga being among some of her first ones.

为了更好的留神管理她的银行账户，Saniewska去学习了会计，暂时把摄影作为了一个业余爱好追求。她从拍摄纽约的风景照开始她自己的摄影生涯，拍摄Gaga也算是她的第一次习作 。

"We were colleagues, we didn’t hang out really heavily, but she’s the nicest girl ever. ... She’s down-to-earth," Saniewska said. "At that time, she gave me a CD of her first single, and I listened to it and I was really impressed. And she’s a beautiful girl. Based on her looks and her personality I thought (a photo shoot) would be great fun."

Saniewska 说“我们是同事，并不经常在一起，但是她是我见过的最好的女孩…脚踏实地，那时她给了我她第一张单曲的CD，我听了之后很震惊。并且她也很漂亮，因为她出色的外表和性格，我觉得给她拍照将会很有乐趣”

Back then, Gaga "played piano and sang. This 19-year-old girl, she was really talented. She didn’t talk about it a lot, (but) she did say that she studied music. ... I cannot even explain to you what she sounds like with just a piano, then or now," Saniewska said. "I offered her the photo shoot, and she said yes right away." Gaga had the perfect location in mind: Her parents’ place on the Upper East Side.

那时，Gaga“边谈钢琴边唱歌，这个19岁的女孩真的很有天赋，她不太谈论她的音乐，但她说曾学过音乐…此时彼时我都无法向你描绘出她的歌声只就着钢琴听起来的感觉。我说要给她拍照，她马上就答应了”Gaga在脑袋里想到了拍照的绝佳地点：她父母在上东区的房子。

The two young women hopped on a train and headed over there, and set to work creating what Saniewska says became Lady Gaga’s first photo shoot, although Saniewska didn’t know that at the time. "The house was empty, it was just the two of us," Saniewska said. "I knew she was a singer, so our focus was her and her very first piano. We just hung out in her parents’ living room, and the piano was right by the window." She’s a good model, obviously," Saniewska added with a laugh.

两个年轻女孩跳上火车到了那里，一同拍了现在被认为是Lady Gaga的第一组照片，而Saniewska在那时不得而知。“房间空荡荡的，只有我们俩个，我知道她是个歌手，所以我们重点在她本身和她的钢琴，我们去了她父母的起居室，钢琴就在窗户边上，显而易见，她是个好模特” Saniewska边笑边补充。

Saniewska, who’s never been formally trained, said she shot around 200 photos that day. After culling through the resulting images, choosing the photos with the best natural lighting, she presented Gaga with a CD of the pictures. The burgeoning singer was happy with them, and used some of the art for her own promotional materials.

Saniewska 从没接受过正式的相关训练，说她那天拍了约200张相片。在对最后的成像进行遴选后，选择了那些自然光线最好的相片，她把它们刻入了CD送给了Gaga。这位新兴歌手非常高兴，还把有些照片用在她自己的宣传材料上。

Of course, there’s no way Saniewska could have known that the young woman she photographed on a summer day in 2005 would become the international superstar she is today. As a matter of fact, Saniewska says that at first, when she saw her as Lady Gaga, she didn’t recognize her, having been accustomed to her as a long-haired brunette waitress.

Saniewska当然不可能知道，她2005年拍的这个年轻女孩在今天会成为国际巨星。实际上，Saniewska一开始根本没有认出她是Lady Gaga，因为习惯了印象中她是个长发，皮肤黝黑的服务生形象。

Even as Gaga’s fame continued to grow, Saniewska kept those early photos to herself "out of respect," she said, particularly because she wasn’t in touch with her.And then, she just so happened to bump into her old colleague in 2010."I actually ran into her in the East Village, and she came up to me. She was already Lady Gaga, and we spoke a little, and she leaned on me, and she said in my ear, ’Did you know that this was my first photo shoot?’ I had no idea," Saniewska said. "She was really excited. From that moment on I figured I could do something about it. And she’s OK with it." Saniewska hopes that those viewing the photos will get to see another side of Gaga, a peek at who the star was before the world knew her name.

Gaga的名气越来越大，但是Saniewska仍然保留着那些她早期的照片，她说“出于尊重”特别是她们不再联系的情况下。然后，2010年，她遇到了她的老同事Gaga，我在东村偶遇她，她向我走来，真的是Lady Gaga，我们略微的交谈了一下，她靠近我在我耳边说“你知道吗，那是我第一次拍照” “我不知道” Saniewska说“她看上去很高兴，从那时我知道她可以允许我做一些事情” Saniewska希望这些相片可以让别人看到另一面的Gaga，在世界都知道她名字前她是什么样子。

But even with all the fame, to Saniewska, she’s "still the same girl. The fact that we ran into each other and she came up to me -- she didn’t say ’Hi’ and run off. She stood there for 15 minutes, just chatting. She remembered my name, she remembered who I was, and she had so much to say. She’s still the same person to me."

即使她这么有名，但是对Saniewska来说“她依旧是那个女孩，我们遇见对方时她向我走来，她没有仅仅是说 嗨 然后就走，而是站在那里15分钟，和我聊天，她记得我的名字，记得我是谁，她有很多的话要说，她对我来说还是原来的她”。

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来源:CNN爱语吧作者:Roy