Bialy Kruk (White Crow) Publishers of Krakow recently published an album titled Poland. Home of a Thousand Year Old Nation. The volume contains photographs by renowned photographer Adam Bujak and a text by professor Janusz Dobesz, an art historian and architect.
Several years ago I came up with the idea for a book about the history of Polish architecture that would not be academic but rather understandable to everyone, said professor Dobesz at the press conference announcing the release of the volume. 'I needed some wonderful photographs to complement the text'. Adam Bujak, an outstanding photographer, expressed interest in the idea. We came to an agreement and thus produced this album.
The publication contains two hundred forty photographs of Polish homes. The images depict both well-known and wondrous achievements of Polish architecture, as well as lesser-known buildings that are hardly celebrated for their design.
This was the first time I decided to create photographs according to someone else's script, added Adam Bujak. 'In effect, I adjusted my efforts to fit someone else's concept. Let others judge the result. I used a minimum of archival photos; the vast majority of the images were created specifically for this album'.
The volume covers buildings erected in Poland during the last one thousand years. It includes discussions of the caves located in the area of Ojcow that were home to our ancestors, the defensive town of Biskupin, and the homes of kings - Wawel Castle in Krakow and the Royal Palace in Warsaw. Also covered are the famous 'Wagon of Drzymala', various castles and palaces of the aristocracy, the manors of the nobility, the homesteads of peasants, both historical and contemporary urban architecture, as well as churches, cathedrals and monasteries.
The album has been published in three languages: Polish (Polska. Dom tysiącletniego narodu), English (Poland. Home of a Thousand Year Old Nation) and German (Polen. Das Haus Einer Tausendjahrigen Nation).
- Adam Bujak, Janusz L. Dobesz
Poland. Home of a Thousand Year Old Nation
Wydawnictwo Bialy Kruk, Kraków 2003
240 x 330, 231 pages, 240 illustrations, hardcover
ISBN 83-88-91830-3 (Polish)
ISBN 83-88-91832-X (English)
ISBN 83-88-91831-1 (German)