Photo exhibition Lemkowyna by Zbigniew Podsiadlo – opening evening

On 20th September 2011 year, in the spacious rooms of historic Dworek Bialopradnicki in Krakow, took place an opening evening of photo exhibition by a famous photographer Zbigniew Podsiadlo.

The Artist, who has been taking photographs since 1974, on the currently ongoing exhibition shows several images with one of the least altered by the human activity areas of Poland called Beskid Niski Mountains. The residents of this part of Poland call their land Lemkowyna, as there are Lemkos who live there mainly. In spite of the war tragedy and mass evictions, Lemkos have never lost their ethnic group consciousness, which allows them now to continue their traditions and promote their vast cultural achievements.Why is it Lemkos’ life and culture Zbigniew Podsiadlo concentrates on? Why does he want to show this topic to us?

The Author himself explains, ‘I wish this exhibition adds to understanding of Lemkos history. In my photographs I wanted to express the unique mood of these places, their cultural variety, and, at the same time, pay attention to the hard life the Lemkos, so much life-tested, have now.’

After the official opening of the evening by Jolanta Kogut, the Head of the Art Education Department in Dworek Bialopradnicki, Zbigniew Podsiadlo shared with us the history connected to each of his photographs. We learned where exactly each photo was taken and who were the few people present in the images. The people, Lemkos, who are looking into the space behind their homes, with longing and regret in their eyes trying to understand what happened in this land…

Force of these photographs was so much more moving that we were aware that most of the characters immortalized by Zbigniew Podsiadlo’s camera, were gone forever, as well as the houses or shrines. The series of photographs Lemkowyna saves this land from oblivion and is a tribute paid to Lemkos, whose presence we can feel in every photograph; in every cross standing alone in the fields, each church or crumbling cottage. Lemkowyna, touching upon the complexity of events in the life of people living in border areas is a living witness to history. Zbigniew Podsiadlo does not evaluate, but wishes to evoke emotions, which arouse awareness and understanding that we are all equal, regardless of origin, religion or language.

The meeting with Zbigniew Podsiadlo brought that evening a lot of people. Among the invited guests were: members of the Association of Friends of Photography in Sosnowiec, whose artistic supervisor is Zbigniew Podsiadlo, outstanding culture specialist Dr. Elzbieta Wiacek, Curator of Photography Gallery Deka in Rybnik, Krzysztof Lapka (www.dkchwalowice.pl), well known and respected photographers, ethnographers and historians from different parts of our country and the staff of the Museum of the History of Photography in Krakow, but above all, friends and supporters of the Artist together with their families.

About the friendly atmosphere of this evening, organized by the Krakow Cultural Center Dworek Bialopradnicki and Athanor Group, you can learn by looking at Photo reports available on our page.

Zbigniew Podsiadlo, who showed his photographs in Krakow for the first time in the solo exhibition, lives and works in Sosnowiec. For many years, he has been a member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers (ZPAF), and currently he is the chairman of the Mountain District of ZPAF. He has participated in more than two hundred international and national exhibitions, he is also a multiple winner of the Polish major awards in the field of photography, including: the Medal of the 150th Anniversary of Photography, the Golden Award of Polish Federation of Photographic Societies, as well as awards of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, "Merit for Polish Culture".

The exhibition is available till the end of November 2011, in Dworek Bialopradnicki at 2 Papiernicza Street in Krakow.

 

Joanna Fedorowicz
Dominika Dzierżymirska-Podpłomyk
Athanor Group 

We encourage you to have a look at the following brief note about the Lemkos community.

Scholars are still discussing the ethno genesis of the Lemkos. According to one theory, the Lemkos (and other Carpatho-Rusyns) are descendants of the White Croats. Some Polish scholars claim that they developed from a Vlach - Rusyn migration in the 14th and 15th centuries. There is also a view that they are refugees from Rus who moved to the Western side of the Carpathian Mountains in the 14th century to escape the Mongol invasion. Some scholars suggest that settlers from Rus' may have arrived earlier to the area traditionally inhabited by Lemkos. Analysis of population genetics shows statistical differences between Lemkos and other Slavic or European populations.

Lemkivshchyna became part of Poland in medieval Piast times. Lemkos became an ethnic minority as part of the Austria province of Galicia in 1772. Mass emigration from this territory to the Western hemisphere for economic reasons began in the late 19th century. After World War I, Lemkos founded two short-lived republics, the Lemko-Rusyn Republic in the west of Galicia, which had a Russophile orientation, and the Komancza Republic, with an Ukrainophilic orientation.

It is estimated that about 130,000 to 140,000 Lemkos were living in the Polish part of Lemkivshchyna in 1939. Additional depopulation of these lands occurred during the forced resettlement, initially to the Soviet Union (about 90,000 people) and later to Poland's newly-acquired western lands (about 35,000) in the Operation Vistula campaign of 1947. This action was a state ordered removal of the civilian population, in a counter-insurgency operation to remove potential support for guerrilla war being waged by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in southeastern Poland.

While a small number of Lemkos returned (some 5,000 Lemko families returned to their home regions in Poland between 1957–1958, (they were officially been granted the right to return in 1956), the Lemko population in the Polish section of Lemkivschyna only numbers around 10,000-15,000 today. Some 50,000 Lemkos live in the western and northern parts of Poland, where they were sent to populate former German villages in areas ceded to Poland. Among those, 5,863 people identified themselves as Lemko in the 2002 census. However, 60,000 ethnic Lemkos may reside in Poland today. Within Lemkivshchyna, Lemkos live in the villages of Łosie, Krynica, Nowica, Zdynia, Gładyszów, Hańczowa, Zyndranowa, Uście Gorlickie, Bartne, Binczarowa and Bielanka. Additional populations can be found in Mokre, Szczawne, Kulaszne, Rzepedź, Turzańsk, Komańcza, Sanok, Nowy Sącz, and Gorlice.

In 1968 an open-air museum dedicated to Lemko culture was opened in Zyndranowa. Additionally, a Lemko festival is held annually in Zdynia.

Notable Lemkos, among others:

Nikifor Krynicki - naive, primitive painter, Petro Murianka - a poet who writes in the Lemko language, involved with contemporary Lemko issues, Jerzy Nowosielski - painter, illustrator, designer, philosopher and theologian of the Orthodox Church, Andy Warhol - American painter the major figure in the pop art movement, son of Lemko immigrants (birth name Warhola), Olena Duc-Fajfer - Lemko activist, poet, researcher at the Jagiellonian University.(www.en.wikipedia.org)