Marianna Michałowska

Since the last years of the 20th century, Poznań’s district Naramowice has been an area of rapidly growing investments and a model example of contemporary transformation of urban peripheries into residential areas. The sites of a 19th-century village and farm and a post-war gardening company are turning into housing estates. The new district, repeatedly criticized for the lack of a well-thought-out development plan and transport solutions, finally in 2022 was connected with a city center by a tram route. Naramowice are the subject of a phototextual reflection in which I refer to the ambiguous status of this space, expressed in such terms as extension and redevelopment, land development, and wastelands. In conclusion, I wonder if the district can be a laboratory for the “fourth nature” (I. Kowarik, K. Jakubowski) project or an illustration of the “third landscape” (R. Clément)? The article takes the form of a rephotographic photo essay (L. Pouwels, M. Rosler), in which images are intertwined with text fragments, in which the concepts of urban wasteland, natural thinking and contemporary urban design are discussed. The photographs I used present the changes observed during the construction of the tram route, the interference of residential investments in the areas of the former orchards in Naramowice and the projects of urban meadows between residential buildings. Made with a mobile phone, they have the character of a field note, emphasizing the role of active, mobile observation of dynamic changes in space.

The text reflects on photographic methods of documenting the city. The paper is parted into four sections: the first presents the issues surrounding documenting, the second discusses historical examples of urban documentary, the third analyses the modern tendency of construction and, finally, the last fourth section introduces examples of contemporary art practice. Written with regard to the concepts of François Soulages I will discuss, among others, the following projects: The Inventory (Inwentaryzacja) by Ireneusz Zjeżdżałka, A Sky over Warsaw by Juliusz Sokołowski and The Other City (Inne miasto) by Wojciech Wilczyk and Elżbieta Janicka. All examples focus on different aspects of documentation: they allow preserving in a viewer’s mind the lost past, create a contra-image of a city or reveal the unseen and forgotten fragments of history.

The text focuses on photographs taken by Klementyna Zubrzycka at the beginning of 20th century, at her home town Limanowa. It is interesting to examine these pictures in the context of both home life and family life, because the author – Zubrzycka mostly documented her everyday life and relatives, like others amateurs in the first half of 20th century, including Lartigue or Vivian Maier (who was popularized by a documentary film made in 2013). Analyzing photographs of Zubrzycka, it is necessary to check to what extend home (and family) photography was considered to be domain of women. And if emancipation and modernity opened a new filed of creativity for women. The other issue is to examine these pictures in terms of aesthetics and artistic values, usually re-discovered by critics and curators years after they were made. The last but not least question would be one about differences between amateur photography and arts.