Oldal 44 [44]
OCR
42 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 invisible, the differences and internal tensions, and in this they were successful. However, the avoidance of tensions does not cause the photographs to be more convincing 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 presenting 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 moments, 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 photojournalists 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 realized 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).
