The book's layout was wittily designed. The narrative develops through ambiguous juxtapositions on the spreads: controversial, humorous, and even grotesque combinations of absorbing and very narrative photographs (from today's perspective, some of these sequences transcend the standards of good taste or political correctness). The photographs are usually imposed with bleed, an effect which sucks the viewers into the world of the circus. A dozen colour photographs are a further enhancement that unexpectedly contributes an even more fantastic aura to the whole.
Besides technically sophisticated frames and quick snapshots, Styczyński displays profound, studied portraits. Ludzie areny is a work by an exquisite artist who engages in a play on the form and visuality of a photographic image. We can find time-lapse montages documenting the most demanding acrobatic manoeuvres, as well as post-produced, free-form cut outs. The book is very voluminous, but not at all tiresome. On the contrary, thanks to the constant intertwining of the themes and pictorial conventions, it seems to provide a deeper insight into the represented world.
The album is quint-lingual – Styczyński's introduction was translated into French, Russian, German, and English. Just like the posters of the Polish School, this photographic volume was intended as an export product. The circus world as seen through Styczyński's lens tells a universal story which matched the international circus craze of the time as much as the safe humanist trend in photography. It is a story that could take place anywhere, and one that doesn't reveal too much about the specifics of everyday life in the Polish People's Republic. This kind of interpretative method is typical of the author. Styczyński was a documentarian of, so to say, cultural sanctuaries, nonchalantly entering domains apparently isolated from politics: belonging to cats, circus performers, or visual artists.
photographs and text: Jan Styczyński
graphic design: Marek Freudenreich
publisher: Interpress Publishing, Warsaw
year of publication: 1975
volume: 300 pages
format: 27.3 x 23.6 cm
hard cover with paper dust jacket
print run: 15 260
Original text: polishphotobook.tumblr.com, transl. Ania Micińska, July 2015