Oldal 62 [62]
OCR
60 Dagnostaw Demski Withdrawal of the defending troops is also the object of photography (Figs 21, 22 and 23), as an aspect of the same process of ‘replacing old order’. In Figure 21 Polish soldiers leave Nowy Swiat Street in Warsaw after the capitulation of September 1939. The next image belongs to the same category: weapons are left around the statue of Kiliriski by the troops defending Warsaw, 1939 (Fig. 22). The last example depicts soldiers on their way to captivity after leaving weapons, 1939/44 (Fig. 23). It appears to me that there is nothing false in these images— they are not staged. The former order is represented in the form of relinquished hopes. New order was presented in various manners. Such images usually depict the siege of a town, a victory, the acts of establishing the new order. They are accompanied by signs of triumph but also those of subordination and submission. The images showing how the symbols of former order and state are destroyed constitute an iconoclastic attack, stating that these symbols were only false idols. There are many examples of welcoming gates erected on such occasions. There is a photo in the archive"! that presents such a gate, erected in Wiodawa on the Bug river. It dates to the autumn of 1939, when German and Russian armies established a joint border. Nazi symbols are visible next to Soviet ones: the Swastika next to the hammer and sickle. It is possible to treat this picture as an icon of triumph, featuring the symbols of the new order. A group of armed soldiers is depicted in the next image, as if to stress that they will guarantee and protect the new order. Another type of image belonging to the same category of securing a new power balance and enhancing a new hierarchy depicts scenes from daily life after the frontline had moved towards the east. In one example, German soldiers and a shoeshine boy are photographed against a major church. First of all the images meant to demonstrate that the local disturbances were insignificant. The iconoclastic rupture perpetuated by soldiers taking photos on the streets of Warsaw seemed to convey the impression that the situation was under control. Secondly, the main square or street belongs to the category of public places, and as such, places which are special within the local topography. The events that occur there have public dimension and are significant for the whole community; it is possible to posit that they carry a ‘state-related’, official character. Usually, the most important local authority buildings and offices are located there, but they are also the places where one can find historical symbols of power, of the former order. Monuments of figures significant for self-determination and historical consciousness are usually erected in similar locations (see Czarnecka, this volume). From the iconoclastic perspective this is also a gesture of exercising control. Such a photo, depicting the victory of the new rule over the former one, emphasises a new status quo, and in this way breaks the power of belief in the old values. !! "There are some images that due to copyright issues could not be printed in this volume.
