Poland in the first half of the 1990s, as seen through Krassowski's lens, at times resembles the Polish People's Republic from the 1980s, with an added superficial layer of advertisements and commerce. For the photographer, these two worlds naturally merge. The social divisions, political conflicts, and the Solidarność demonstrations testify to the continuance of the transformation. From today's perspective, especially appealing are the faces sensitively photographed by Krassowski which pose a fine counterpoint to the mugs of politicians from the front pages of newspapers, former money changers, and businesspeople working their way up. The book – coherent, but nevertheless diverse – features, apart from observed everyday scenes and the aforementioned portraits, powerful, graphic, and symbolic shots of Polish landscapes, fields, and crossroads – devoid, however, of pathos. Krassowski's book presents dense photographs and formulates a group portrait of a society at a time of change. Its strength is telling a story face to face, in close, physical contact with people – in the street, at a state farm, in a subway. It is prosaic and mundane, and yet poignant.
The photographs, adequately saturated with black, look great in the large album format. The bold, contrasting juxtapositions of the spreads emphasize the scale of social sentiments and increasing inequalities (the only shortcoming of the graphic design is the weak, illegible typography). Krassowski's Powidoki z Polski (Afterimages of Poland) is one of the most interesting and daring Polish books devoted to the transformation. It is free of the emptiness and melancholy which appear in other photobooks that touch on the same subject, but focus on the material attributes of the transformation (like in the case of Wojciech Prażmowski's Biało-czerwono-czarna/White, Red, and Black). Instead, there is ambivalence found in people's faces. The portrait of a crying, elderly man selected as the cover image works well as an opening, but also as an appealing closure to the whole – it confirms the ambiguity of the processes taking place, as well as the joy, despair, sorrow, and nostalgia accompanying them.
photographs: Witold Krassowski
texts: Sławomir Mizerski, Thomas Urban, Jacek Żakowski
graphic design: Honorata Karapuda
publisher: EKpictures, Warsaw
year of publication: 2009
volume: 224 pages
format: 31.5 x 24 cm
cover: paperback, glue bound
print run: unknown
ISBN: 978-83-910577-1-1