"Kościoły, synagogi i cerkwie"
24 lipca 2000 | Kultura |
autor: Janusz Drzewucki
The album "Polska" containing 250 photograms is the seventh work of this type in the achievements of Paweł Jaroszewski, one of the most interesting photographers of the middle generation. Previously, he published albums including: about Kraków, Tarnów, Sandomierz, Żelazowa Wola and Wieliczka. The fact that the authors of the texts included in it are: Krzysztof Burek, Paweł Huelle, Jerzy Waldorff, prof. Jacek Woźniakowski and Fr. prof. Józef Tischner. It is worth adding that Fr. Tischner wrote an impression about Podhale at Jaroszewski's request ten years ago for a planned album about the mountains, which, however, was never edited. In the text published now for the first time, the philosopher who died a few weeks ago wrote: "The culture of Podhale was born in the ancient past, when poverty in the Podhale region took the form of famine. Despite such poverty, this land was able to give birth to a wealth that distinguishes it from afar: it gave birth to its own, admirable culture." Of course, the greatest threat to tradition is, unfortunately, modernity, which unifies everything that is in folk culture, or rather - peasantry lively and creative. "The worst lies deepest" - adds Fr. Tischner: "Here the old man is slowly disappearing - a man who loved freedom and turned it into a creative force, who from the depths of his freedom created beauty and the truth about the mystery of life." It is probably not a coincidence that the photographs of the Tatra Mountains, but also of the Pieniny Mountains, the Bieszczady Mountains and the Table Mountains are among the best in the book. There is no doubt that nature is the favorite subject of the Krakow photographer. The landscape of the San valley, the landscape of Masovian fields and meadows on the Biebrza River, the view of the Vistula near Płock, the panorama of Wisłoujście, the dunes of the Łebska Spit and, finally, the waves of the Baltic Sea at dusk - all this, often photographed from a bird's eye view, is breathtaking. Jaroszewski's journey around his homeland starts from Ostrów Lednicki, Gniezno, Poznań and Kruszwica, and ends in the Suwałki region, near Sejny, at the Camaldolese monastery on Lake Wigry. He also took great care in photographing the architecture of both large cities such as Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków, as well as towns: Kazimierz Dolny, Łańcut, Leżajsk, Krasiczyn. The artist tried to avoid stereotypes. Therefore, in his album we will not find the legendary Kruszwica Mysia Tower, but a view from the Mysia Tower of the Rzępowski Peninsula and Lake Gopło. Instead of a postcard-style town hall in Zamość, Jaroszewski offers us stills of the Zamość cathedral and synagogue. The Poland presented in the album is a country of various religions. Tasteful photographs from Jasna Góra are juxtaposed with almost reportage-style frames showing Hasidim gathered at the grave of Izrael ben Eliezer, as well as Orthodox Christians praying in churches in Kodeń, Grabarka and Jabłeczna. However, if I missed something in this - which is worth emphasizing - extremely carefully edited album, it was photos from Upper Silesia.
Janusz Drzewucki
Janusz Drzewucki: Paweł Jaroszewski "Polska. Poprzez wieki ku nowemu tysiącleciu". Wydawnictwo Andrzej Frukacz "Ex libris" - Galeria Polskiej Książki, Warszawa 2000.
