Don’t ask about Poland
"Don't ask about Poland" is an ongoing photographic project exploring memory, nostalgia and a shifting relationship between personal history and place. It is my way of reflecting on my identity from a position of distance.
I was born in Poland and in the early 2000s I emigrated to the United Kingdom. Each time I visit my hometown, I photograph my friends, their families, and spaces which surround them. I create urban and architectural observations, moving freely between portraits and objects, allowing visual connections to form between people and their environments. These photographs are pockets of memory, fragments of my childhood and adolescence, existing somewhere between past and present.
Today my connection to the country is complex: I return regularly, yet I feel increasingly distant from the reality of contemporary Poland. I am here leaving objective reality behind, and through crisps colours and cutting light, I am entering the uncertain territory of subjective memory of the country I once knew. Where does memory end and the present start?
Note on the title
“Don’t ask about Poland” quotes a song by Grzegorz Ciechowski, “Nie pytaj o Polskę” (“Don’t ask about Poland”), expressing the difficulty of speaking about the country.
I was born in Poland and in the early 2000s I emigrated to the United Kingdom. Each time I visit my hometown, I photograph my friends, their families, and spaces which surround them. I create urban and architectural observations, moving freely between portraits and objects, allowing visual connections to form between people and their environments. These photographs are pockets of memory, fragments of my childhood and adolescence, existing somewhere between past and present.
Today my connection to the country is complex: I return regularly, yet I feel increasingly distant from the reality of contemporary Poland. I am here leaving objective reality behind, and through crisps colours and cutting light, I am entering the uncertain territory of subjective memory of the country I once knew. Where does memory end and the present start?
Note on the title
“Don’t ask about Poland” quotes a song by Grzegorz Ciechowski, “Nie pytaj o Polskę” (“Don’t ask about Poland”), expressing the difficulty of speaking about the country.