Page 418 [418]
OCR
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 structure 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 (monuments, 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).
