Oldal 418 [418]
416
Ewa Baniowska-Kopacz
theless, those few to be found in every issue show well the beauty of the region,
especially its mountains (Fig. 189) and cities. Iheir role was more than purely
decorative, as I will try to demonstrate further.
‘The significance of landscapes or events situated in a certain time and place (like
those presented above) is shown in recollections of people who had lost their ‘place’.
First of all there is the landscape, in which all its characteristic elements—hills,
valleys, and rivers—are depicted, but there are also villages, crossroad crosses and
important buildings (most often the church, but also the school or local grocery,
and places linked with the family, such as the house, neighbours houses, cemeteries
etc.; cf. Kabziñska 2000). All these elements create ‘the place’, well known, safe and
friendly. Landscape picture, combined with scenes from life, natural monuments,
or architecture, were intended give an perception of Silesia as safe and ‘ours’, not
alien.
‘The region presented photographically in the journal was given intimate and
friendly characteristics. Firstly, Silesia’s historical ties with other parts of Poland
were recalled. There were references to the common roots and the common past.
‘The reader got the chance to be acquainted with the topography of the region and
its landscapes and views, local place names, traditions, and events from the past.
Readers were acquainted with today’s reality in the Regained Territories: rebuilding
industry and agriculture etc."
Aleksander Posern-Zieliriski (2005) in his analysis of the regional identity struc¬
ture has stated that studies on this issue should encompass at least four aspects—
territory, the history of the region, the people, and cultural specificity. As already
said, the main objective of the journal was to present the Polish specificity of the
Regained Territories, i.e. their identity. The illustrations refer to all four aspects
listed above, although emphasising the history of the region.
The identity of a land is formed by its people. The concept of identity is closely
related to people, inhabitants of the area. Each region is shaped and also perceived
through the prism of their inhabitants, who also shape the surrounding landscape.
‘They create the architecture, regional infrastructure, take care of memorials (monu¬
ments, museums etc.), shape the picture of their world. Identity, either individual
or collective, is linked with space—the land, the area, the region. Marks of the
past visible in the space often became strong stimulants in developing a feeling of
(regional) identity.'* The choice of illustrations in the analysed journal was directed
to present the Regained Territories to the reader as a friendly, well-known and safe
space so that the audience would identify with the area. It was especially important
for new settlers in Silesia arriving from various other regions of Poland. Such a per¬
7 From May 1947 SMI more contemporary materials were presented (Slgsk. Miesiecznik Ilustrowan
y porary P 2)
1947, nos 2-3).
18 This mutual man-space-place relationship was referred to by Aleksander Wallis as “one of the most
important reciprocal dependencies in culture” in Wallis 1979: 13).