We have already shown Marcin Urbanowicz's photographs in the pages of Fotografia Quarterly, both on our website and in the paper edition. KF43
Here we are collecting to publish a book!
In an article that appeared in issue 43, I wrote:
Most photographers who document provincial towns and villages carry a unique radar. There can be no good documentary photography without this radar as well as an innate ability to "observe." Urbanowicz possesses these qualities and uses them perfectly in his travels. He creates photographs that are first and foremost saturated with content, and the key he has chosen in their creation completely dispels the myth of boring Polish documentary photography.
"Provincial Photographers" have a natural ability to discover and show what is invisible to many (both photographers and natives of a locality). It's not just an outsider's view, as the fresh look of a visiting (transient) photographer has come to be known. In a brief description for his photos, Marcin stressed that photographing small towns, villages far from large agglomerations is not only a journey through the "map of absurdities" he encounters in the provinces, but also a sentimental documentation of places that are disappearing along with their communities.
In Urbanowicz's photographs, there are no people. This is a conscious effort, as human stories are very visible in his photographs. Any development of places, backyard or street arrangements, accurately show the presence of man and the thought of a community. Bringing out such thought in photographs is one of the many qualities that build good documentary photography. Our "Polish exoticism" is still most evident in the provinces. This is an inexhaustible subject, where "non-invasive documentary photography" will always be strong due to its simplicity in depicting reality. It does not need superfluous, artistic treatments to delight and arouse interest. Surreal constructions, ridiculous buildings, situations and places so ugly as to be beautiful. Such "postcards of small homelands" are shared with the viewer by a lover of provincial landscapes. This is what the Poland that Urbanowicz travels through looks like.
The aforementioned exoticism and "beautiful ugliness" are not all aspects of the "documentary poetics" that Wojtek Zawadzki often spoke of. Such poetics is obviously visible in Urbanowicz's photographs. Such a "born image" makes it not just a registration of a given reality, but a much deeper look consisting of the already mentioned radar (sensitivity), concept and workshop.
We need such photographs and photographers all the time. Together these entities create multi-layered social portraits that continue to appear in their original (pure, unmanipulated) form as photography, and through this we can learn not only about interesting locales, spaces and their stories (often totally abstract, yet true), but also about the thinking of the photographer, and thus also read the stories of the man behind the lens.
In Urbanowicz's photographs there is an awareness of inevitable change and disappearance. It is a continuous process worthy of photographic observation. It's endless content is a description of the photographed society, which in the provinces paradoxically seems even more different these days from the communities of the big cities. The landscape of the provinces seems more natural than the "view noise" of large metropolises, where there is less and less individual thought in urban spaces. All this accompanies the photographer while looking, which this "looking" turns into photographs that form an atlas of unique places.
The reality depicted in the photos is often so unreal and absurd that, shown in a conscious and aesthetic way, it makes documentary photography eternally interesting and attractive. On top of that, Urbanowicz's photos also carry a load of humor, which is not always the case with Polish documentary photographers.
However, in the ever-accelerating world of new technologies, global changes and visual art that increasingly uses the capabilities of artificial intelligence and creates such excellent images that mimic photography, I am not worried about the future of documentary photography, which will always have the task of depicting reality whatever it may be. In time, we will appreciate photographers like Urbanowicz even more, and photography will return to its roots.
From the Author
Thousands of kilometers traveled, about 500 towns photographed, plenty of surprising spaces of Polish villages and small towns - almost four years of records in a provincial travel diary reach the finish line which is the publication of the photo book "Good morning, Poland".
Join me in finalizing this project! You can support the release of my book through pre-sales.
My dear friends! Thank you for having so many of you in my provincial little world. I never imagined that initially a photo-art would turn into an almost four-year journey across Poland, through the extremely fascinating nooks and crannies of small towns and villages. Photographing the province was and is addictive - what I saw, what I experienced, how many kilometers I walked will stay with me forever. I wish that at least some part of the collection of over 1,700 photographs could also survive longer than a possibly burned server or hacked account.
Thank you for each and every comment and private message during this journey through the province together. I won't hide the fact that it was the questions about whether I would publish a book that motivated me to create one, and today I can finally inform you about the just-launched pre-sale of my book publication , "Good Morning, Poland".
25×20 cm
184 pages
152 photographs
hardcover
A remarkable job of editing the material was done by Joanna Kinowska @new_better_liar
The introductory essay to the photos was written by Ziemowit Szczerek @ziemowitszczerek
https://zrzutka.pl/zxp5mp
I would be very grateful if you would like to send this message further!
Marcin Urbanowicz (1989) - a Gliwice resident living in Lubliniec. He graduated with honors from the Fotoedukacja photography school in Katowice, and then from Press, Advertising and Publishing Photography at the University of Warsaw. A documentary photographer by passion, a graphic designer and photographer by profession, working with several marketing agencies. Winner of many national and international competitions - including: Chromatic Awards, International Photography Awards, Leica Street Photo, Polska Ulicznie or Silesian Press Photography. Scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and Science in 2022. Invited to participate in several photography festivals, including the Wojnowski Festival of Photography and the Silesian Photo Marathon.
