In Poland photographers from Visavis.pl selected Niepołomice, a town located not far from Cracow as such a focal point. This town is developing at a rapid rate and taking advantage of changes which were instigated in Poland following 1989. Here enormous changes have their own familiar face, for instance flats which change due to their owners' prosperity, growing awareness of the need to protect the natural environment, the development of civic initiative and responsibility for the local community by involving the disabled.
Photographs of the changing Niepołomice and its inhabitants have been made since summer 2006 and their first exhibition was held outside Bunkier Sztuki in December 2006. Since then many new photos have been made and they were shown at another exhibition. Students from the Institute of Sociology at Jagiellonian University have began studies of the Niepołomice community under the supervision of professor Krystyna Slany. The young sociologists interviewed people about going abroad, politics, family life, involvement in the local community, topic unexplored by the photographers. However, it was only through the combination of both tools, photography and interview, that we learn something unusual about ourselves and try to sort out a mystery that is not only connected with Niepołomice.
The project’s web-site www.zmiany.eu
