Do you still remember me? PRL in the lens of local press photojournalists on the example of Cieszyn

Much more can probably be said on this subject by art historians or cultural studies scholars involved in the preservation and study of the photographic archives left behind by the photojournalists employed until 1989 in the editorial offices of local weekly newspapers, covering mainly medium-sized cities and adjacent regions, since the local so-called district press (in today's form of municipalities and counties) began to emerge only after the political breakthrough of 1989/1990. All of these newspapers of the time, even if they were established in the 1950s or 1960s on the initiative of local circles and party authorities, eventually became the property of the RSW "Prasa-Książka-Ruch" concern and functioned as the press organ of the PZPR. Thus, the photojournalists employed by them on a full-time basis or cooperating with the editorial offices often had exclusive rights to photographically document the life of cities, the local community, national celebrations and holidays, municipal and plant party organizations, social and economic changes, the development of local industry and commerce, as well as culture, sports, education and health care.

The most persistent survived at their post until 1989, documenting the end of the People's Republic of Poland and the economic, political and systemic changes in their communities. They usually left several thousand negatives (priceless from today's perspective) in their home or editorial archives, which are often the most complete local photographic document of that era - a document of time, places, people, events. And usually these are collections covering mainly the so-called everyday life, ordinariness, including the festive one, i.e. the party-state one, but also all the transformations (and even small revolutions) in the urban landscape, where something irretrievably disappears and something new constantly appears or begins to function in new surroundings or under new rules.

Today, if such collections of author's negatives find their way in good condition to a branch of the State Archives or a local museum, there are technical, organizational and financial opportunities for the history of the Gomulka, Gierek and Jaruzelski era contained in them to see the light of day not only in the form of occasional exhibitions, which are short-lived and quickly disappear from the offer of the city's cultural institutions, but also in the form of album editions, thanks to which a large part of the frames collected between the covers has a chance to survive longer than a newspaper and an exhibition, and to reach a wider audience if these albums go on sale openly. Such a situation occurred in 2021 in Cieszyn, specifically at the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia. Two albums of black-and-white press and documentary photography were published there in one year. Volume one, with 245 photographs by Tadeusz Kopoczek, covers the 1960s and 1970s, and volume two, with 289 photographs by Henryka Tomaszczyk and Tadeusz Kopoczek, contains chronologically arranged frames from 1960 to 1989. On the website of the Cieszyn Museum, in connection with the release of the second volume, you can read:  

We are pleased to announce that the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, in cooperation with Modena Printing House, has published the second album of photographs in the series entitled "Do you still remember me?". This time the leitmotifs are "People and Events," and the authors of the published photographs are Henryka Tomaszczyk and Tadeusz Kopoczek. In the photographs, in contrast to the first album, which focused on Cieszyn, we see the entire Cieszyn district, i.e. the eastern part of historic Cieszyn Silesia. The photographs on display were created from the late 1950s to 1989 and are a selection of the extensive photographic archives of Henryka Tomaszczyk and Tadeusz Kopoczek, who at various times worked with "Głos Ziemi Cieszyńskiej". These archives have recently become part of the collection of the Department of Photography of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia. In almost 300 photographs you can see events from the communist period and the heroes of the foreground, background or background. What's more, you can see familiar faces there! Who did not go to the May Day parades or harvest festivals, to the screenings of the Film Discussion Club "Fafik" or to the basketball games of KS "Piast" Cieszyn. There are photographs of car races in which Sobieslaw Zasada won, but also Oldtimers' Fair or the Week of Press and Books, floods in Skoczów and the cable car to Czantoria. You will see the interiors of factory stores and other workplaces. There were plenty of pretexts for reporters to document the life of Cieszyn county, just open our album to find out! We highly recommend this exclusive publication! Photo authors: Henryka Tomaszczyk, Tadeusz Kopoczek. Scanning, selection and processing of negatives: Marian Dembiniok. Photo captions: Irena French, Marian Dembiniok. Publisher: Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, First Edition 2021.   

On the other hand, about the first volume, which was published a few months earlier (March 8, 2021), this is what the local portal OX.pl reported:  What did Cieszyn look like in the 1960s and 1970s? It was immortalized on his films by Tadeusz Kopoczek. For decades his photographs illustrated articles published in "Głos Cieszyński". And now the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, in whose collection they were found, has collected them and published them in the form of a unique album "Do you still remember me? Cieszyn in the 1960s and 1970s". You can transport yourself to Cieszyn from half a century ago by browsing through Tadeusz Kopoczek's album of photographs, which can be purchased at the Museum's ticket office. However, this is only the beginning of the Museum's planned publication. In the 245 photographs one can see both the old Cieszyn - the most characteristic buildings, as well as those no longer existing, demolished at the time, but most of all the new buildings - housing estates and factories, the bus station and the customs and passport clearance building at the border bridge, backyards and alleys, the interior of the milk bar, "Trojak" or the Piastowska bookstore. The charm of these documentary photographs will remind many Cieszyners of the aura of childhood and the times of their youth, while the young will see what the city where their parents and grandparents walked looked like. The album showing Nadolzianskie Gród through the eye and lens of Tadeusz Kopoczek is the first album in the planned series, which will show the rich photographic collections of the Museum of. (indi)

At this point, it is worth adding a few words about the authors of the photographs that went into both albums. Tadeusz Kopoczek - was born in 1930 in Czechowice-Dziedzice. He became active as a journalist already in his school years, and in 1955, from the publication of the first issue, he became permanently associated with the editorial office of "Głos Ziemi Cieszyńskiej". Since 1972 he was a member of the Association of Polish Journalists. He proved to be a versatile journalist: he practiced journalism while being an excellent technical editor. His interest in photography, going hand in hand with the needs of the editorial office when it came to the photo service, resulted in thousands of photos taken in Cieszyn Silesia. He died in Cieszyn in 2018, but thanks to the kindness of his heirs, a huge collection of nearly 6,000 photographic negatives of his authorship has found its way to the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia. Henryka Tomaszczyk - née Molin, was born in 1954 in Cieszyn. She graduated from the Mechanical and Electrical Technical School, and took her interest in photography from her father, Jan Molin. After graduating from high school, she worked at a photography shop in Katowice, where she developed her interests and learned various photographic techniques. In 1981-1990 she worked in the editorial office of "Głos Ziemi Cieszyńskiej" as a photojournalist, documenting events from the area of Cieszyn and Cieszyn county. In 2020, she donated her entire collection of over 5,000 negatives to the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia.

Thatch bar called aquarium erected in 6 months 1966

Former house of Cieszyn's executioner on Bóżnicza Street

Border Liberty Bridge, 1967

Traffic militiamen of the MO District Command in Cieszyn during their daily routine

Canoe marina at Łyska Avenue 1960s.

Interior of the Trojak store launched by the Powszechna Spółdzielnia Spożywców Konsum Robotniczy in 1965 on the corner of Zamkowa and Przykopa streets

There is no doubt that these two albums (format 24 x 26 cm), brilliantly published by the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, are (or at least can be) a model example of how a cultural institution of a medium-sized city handles the documentary photographic output of solid and tenacious press photojournalists. Today a similar work - which is worth mentioning at this point - on the archival photographic material of Janusz Chlasta - a late Gniezno photojournalist, associated all his professional life with "Przemiany Ziemi Gnieźnieńskiej" (Changes of the Gniezno Land) - is being performed by Wladyslaw Nielipinski, thus preparing the ground for future exhibition and perhaps publishing activities aimed at emphasizing the importance and rank of Janusz Chlasta's photographic document. However - following the example of Cieszyn - will this be followed by concrete actions, which could result in a similar album publication? Today no one knows. Especially since someone will have to finance it (local government?, cultural institution?, sponsor?) and take care of the whole technical side of the possible publication and event. And yet, I believe, in a similar situation are (if they survived) the collections and photographic archives of local photojournalists of the communist era in medium-sized cities as far and wide as Poland. I wonder how many of them will live to see the Cieszyn version? The best possible version. Finally, I will be tempted to make a more general reflection. Let me start with a question: what is the strength of these books, that they attract the eye, that they tempt with images of almost banal reality, that although together they cost 200 zlotys, they did not stop me from such an expense and willingness to carry them in a separate bag (besides suitcase and backpack) from Cieszyn to Gniezno? Albums with photos by two Cieszyn photojournalists attract, among other things, because they show a world that is tame, familiar to those who lived back then going to school, going to work each day, shopping, relaxing or celebrating May 1 gatherings. Henryka Tomaszczyk and Tadeusz Kopoczek (especially he, since he started 20 years earlier than his later, editorial colleague) never starred, never strutted around big galleries with their exhibitions, as happened to national or even European masters of documentary and photojournalism. What's more, they didn't write essays about their work, didn't study their photos at competitions, art commissions and master's seminars. They were ordinary, unassuming photographers with no chance to document breakthroughs in history, wars and revolutions, at most they captured hotly the rare moments when their medium-sized city with its adjacencies became a place of importance for a day or two, because an important personage, from the political, sports or artistic Parnassus, visited it. And that's what their mission boiled down to - to be there, where the life of a small local community, ordinary in its obviousness, was going on, rarely illuminated by a flash of great history and a future unquestionable. They photographed without pomp and artistic strain their home, their small homeland, their world, their place on earth, where they came to live and work. Thanks to their everyday busyness with a camera in hand and by the eye, the world of communist Poland in Cieszyn (we didn't have another then) was not completely lost on the dustbin of history, was not completely invalidated, and thanks to the albums published by the Cieszyn Museum you can take a look at it in Gniezno, Gdynia and Szczecin, one can, while looking at the photos in these books, reflect on the role of humble photojournalists who, in medium-sized cities, saved from oblivion much of what, in every era, in every regime, makes up the beauty, hardship and grayness of our common existence.

Krzysztof Szymoniak, June 2022