vernissage on August 9 (Friday) at 17:00 to the Gallery at 5 Victoria Street in Bialystok, and to view the exhibition at other times as well (until September 8).
From August 9, the Slendzinski Gallery in Bialystok (5 Victoria St.) will host the photographic exhibition Disclosure / Exposure. Agnieszka Sadowska dedicated to the situation on the border. The curator of the exhibition is Joanna Kinowska.
The migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border has been ongoing since August 2021. All of Poland has heard about the Upper Usnarz, the state of emergency, the formation of the wall, the actions of the border guards. We have all learned the meaning of the word "Pushback." Many organizations are carrying humanitarian aid, whether providing medical or translation support, or bringing food under the "pin".
Disclosure is part of the procedure to prevent a migrant/migrant from being pushed abroad. It takes place in the presence of a legal representative, witnesses and the media, i.e. journalists.
The notion of disclosure has also been present in theoretical considerations of photography since its inception. The image is developed, it is revealed during darkroom operations. Finally, this word fits perfectly with the mission of photojournalism, its meaning and purpose. Photos attest to events, have the power to momentarily convey content, reveal facts. Photojournalists are called the eyes of the public.
Agnieszka Sadowska, as a photojournalist working with the Bialystok branch of Gazeta Wyborcza, has been photographing this crisis from the very beginning.
Agnieszka Sadowska: "I think being on the right side is first of all understanding that these people are going, they are on a journey. They don't know what kind or how it will end. I would like to see each situation separately. We hear: "And what are they here for?" "Let them go back to their own." Many people are in this forest, and each story is different. This is only felt when you meet them, talk to them, see what they are like. He will hear."
About the author:
Agnieszka Sadowska is a Polish photographer and photojournalist. She documents socio-cultural events in the Podlasie region and is affiliated with Bialystok's "Gazeta Wyborcza." In 2002 her photos appeared in the album "Fotografie Gazety Wyborcza", while in 2021 they were presented in a group exhibition "Jedyne. Untold Stories of Polish Women Photographers" at the History Meeting House, and Agnieszka herself became one of the protagonists of the book of the same title by Monika Szewczyk-Witek. She is the author of the photo of a refugee woman on the Polish-Belarusian border awarded in the "Photojournalist of the Year 2022" contest. Photographs by A. Sadowska, documenting the crisis on the border, were shown at the European Parliament in Brussels titled "The refugee crisis. "Pushback is illegal. Helping is legal." She is the winner of the Grand Press Photo of the National Competition of Reporters' Photography in 2023.
