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Dagnostaw Demski
then under reconstruction. The content of the photograph was important as was
the message of unity under the USSR emblems during the short moments of group
events and, as such, the photo represents a rather shallow image, distorting the view
of reality for propaganda purposes. Likewise, these photographs convey evidence of
the strategies used then to present reality. In this perspective, the intentions of the
image’s author are more visible than the problems and their realization in reality,
what in this way highlights the level of contact with it.
‘The aim of these photographic presentations was to downplay, even make invis¬
ible, the differences and internal tensions, and in this they were successful. How¬
ever, the avoidance of tensions does not cause the photographs to be more con¬
vincing than the previously discussed ones. Quite otherwise. Both types represent
a selective approach that focuses attention on and gets closer to certain events while
cutting off access to images of other events.
The photographs (Figs 7-9), however, document using the strategy of present¬
ing a community’s revival and attempt to combine people's enthusiasm and new
authority with the new spirit of communism. Devoid of internal “boundaries” and
elements disturbing the message of community creation, they do not convince
with their reality. Both types of photographic representations can be classified as
a heroic narrative of making myths of foundations pointing out the pivotal mo¬
ments, the main divisions, the main heroic figures and the way of connecting the
various parts that make up the whole imagined community.
New Landscape of Everyday Practice, Us, and the World (1950s)
A different example is formed by images from the illustrated weeklies published in
the 1950s—Swiat and Przekréj. According to the information from the catalogue
of a Swiat exhibition, the weekly and its photojournalists enjoyed creative freedom,
yet the propaganda material was copied from the Soviet ones (e.g. the caricatures
from Ogoniok (‘Little Flame’) or from photographic agencies Keystone and CAF.
‘This is how the propaganda aims were realized, and regularly contributing photo¬
journalists were assigned only domestic subjects. As we learn, until 1954, static and
posed photographs constituted the majority of those published; this trend began to
undergo a decisive change after 1955 in effect of political changes in the country.
In 1956, the government of Poland permitted a viewing of “The Family of Man",
photographs by Edward Steichen in 1955 from New York’s Museum of Modern
Art. This created an opportunity to popularize the idea of humanist reportage real¬
ized after the Second World War by the creators of Magnum group.” According
20
Magnum is a photographic cooperative group founded by Robert Capa, David Seymour, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, and George Rodger in Paris. According to Cartier-Bresson, “Magnum is a community
of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what
is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually” (Magnum official website; https://pro.magnumphotos.
com/C.aspx? VP3=CMS3&VF=MAX_2&FRM=Frame:MAX_3, last accessed on: March 17, 2016).