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 starting point for the considerations presented in the article are Monika Niwelińska’s radiographs from the “Trinity Site” series. The artist left photographic plates in the area where a ground-based test of atomic weapons was carried out in 1945. The irradiated earth affects the photosensitive material, changing its color and texture. In this way, the materiality of the soil and the radioactive activity induced by human experiments literally leave their mark on the artistic work. The artist’s works allow for a new interpretation of the groundbreaking text by Rosalind E. Krauss Notes on the Index, which changed thinking about the artistic representation of twentieth-century art. Read in the context of contemporary theories of materiality (including Karen Barad), it indicates the connections between image, trace and energy.

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.

Home Photography of Women- between document and private artistic experiment

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 20^th 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

Georges Didi-Huberman jest jednym z najbardziej oryginalnych historyków sztuki ostatnich lat i to tej statecznej dziedzinie humanistyki dedykuje swoją książkę Obraz płynny. Georges Didi-Huberman i dyskurs historii sztuki Andrzej  Leśniak. Oryginalność myśli Didi-Hubermana polega jednak na tym, że nie mieści się w ramach narzuconych historii sztuki. Autor  Obrazów mimo wszystko celowo i nieustannie  przekracza, narusza i  nadweręża  jej granice, czym nierzadko  naraża  się na krytykę wyznawców „kanonicznych”. Dlaczego tak się dzieje?

Junko Theresa Mikuriya, Historia światła. Idea fotografii, przeł. P. Nowakowski, Universitas, Kraków 2018, ss. 216.