Andrzej Baturo: 50 Years of Photography
© Andrzej Baturo
Front Yard – Back Yard
When given the opportunity to experience the work of a photographer that has evolved over 50 years the historical and social context of the work needs to be considered in light of the photographer, giving critical attention to the decisions and shifts over time. The decision to point, stand and select the moment may reveal a consistency of vision, of concern as well as the historical moment. It may also point to a wandering of the eye, a searching for a vision or just “nifty” photographs influenced by and reflecting images already seen. The photography of Andrzej Baturo fits the first.
The book. Andrzei BaturoL 50 years of photography, is divided into time periods (decades), tracing the photographers work from the 1960s until 2015. Starting with a set of essays and an image a young Baturo with his first camera (he was born 1940 in and has lived in Poland, in the photograph he is about nine years of age) he notes that in the 1950/6os be became conscious of photography after viewing the 1955 exhibition Family of Man curated by Edward Steichen (Museum of Modern Art, New York City). Baturo likely viewed the exhibition when MOMA circulated it as part of its international exhibition program. (Family of Man Book cover: Wekipedia Commons)
Baturo’s interest in photography was in describing the world, not as the communist constructed it but as it was. He states his position concerning image making: “When something is not described it does not exist. When we try to describe it we bring it, in a sense, to life.” (p. 19) The “we” refers to his colleagues of photojournalist working to portray life in Poland, not as the communist wanted it to be seen, but as they wanted to show it. It was a political position similar to the concerns expressed in the four part VASA exhibition on the Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics”. (The four part exhibition covers the periods from 1970-2010.) Baturo claims his position not as a recorder of official socialist life, but of life under socialism. This is exemplified by his comment on the “Silesia” project: “I had just a few occasions to photograph Silesia. I was not interested in the beauty of the land but I wanted to confront the official slogans and grey reality. I was not looking for modern factories and housing estates, but I tried to show the other side of the coin.” (p. 194).
Each section of the book presents selected works from various projects (for example): Varmia and Mazuria, Motocross (an important series marking a turning point in his career), On the Beach, the Poland-England Football Match, To Become A Solider, Warsaw Praga, Drunken Poland, Operation Rot-Gut, Zmosc – Renaissance Pearl, Silesia, Cemetery, A Strike in Podbeskidzie and his untitled landscape/mountain photographs (that were made between 1990 and 2015).
So, what do we make of this backyard tour of Poland under socialism. We see and read in the book about Baturo’s resistance to the Polish government’s propaganda machine/press (the front yard). In place of the rituals and ceremonies that journalist usually report on, Baturo’s camera turns the other way. His photographs frame a world after WWII that is aging and impotent under soviet socialist control. It is the world that he sees and is moved by. As a photojournalist he initially constructed images of events in the 1960s–70s (anytime you point the lens you frame what is shown, you stand at a particular point in space and in time): the Motocross, On the Beach, Listening to the Frombork Pipe Organ, Metamorphosis of Maja Komorowska (the photographs of Komorowska accompainied an interview with the actress), all fitting the journalistic mode of expression. It was not until the Poland – England football game in 1972 that his attention begins to turn towards the human condition and away from the staged event. In the introduction of the series “To Become A Solider” Baturo to speaks to censorship and control over the publication of his work. This is a critical point in the flow of his work (as organized in the book), from this point on the sequence of images (built around projects/themes) sympathize with the social life of the Polish.
© Andrzej Baturo
© Andrzej Baturo
Besides the historical sequence of the book, 1960-2015, the pages of text and images lead us to Baturo’s awakening. Starting with the football game and the army recruit series, the book makes a shift, a turn towards the human condition. Baturo’s focus becomes emblematic over representationalism and reportage. The image of headless security guards and the unpacking of a meat truck introduce a new perspective in the book – power, oppression and control (pp. 100 and 101).
The church cemetery in Swidnica is another marker. The cemetery is a pointer to the past, to a better time, the cemetery like Poland, had been destroyed by vandals and the vandals, as suggested by Baturo’s text, are us. It was the 1980s, the rise of trade unions, martial law, the rise of Solidarity, a growing resistance to communism and the increase in censorship, leading Baturo to move to Bielsko-Biata and to the mountains and landscape imagery. (Image right: Union meeting in the 1980s. This was the last image in the book before the color mountain images. © Andrzej Baturo)
He continued his involvement and leadership in photography from Bielsko-Biata, Poland in the form of a publishing house for photography, founded the Foundation Center for Photography and the FotoArt Festival.
Andrzej Baturo’s life in photography needs to be understood in light of post-World War II in Poland. His passion for making images went beyond photojournalism to a compassion for others who were experiencing the after effects of the war and the communist economic and political system. His move to mountain photography could be seen as a search for beauty, peace, and the simplicity of nature.
As a Polish friend pointed out to me, you cannot understand life under socialism in Poland until you have lived it.
© Roberto Muffoletto, 2017
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