Polish Portraits

Fr Czeslaw / Polish Parish

2008-02-29T12:00:00.018Z

One of the two final chapters of Polish Portraits deal less with the individual and switch their attention towards the community aspect. Personally, I would prefer to work along the formula I have chosen, that is, the one putting emphasis on individual characters whose work and life in general I find interesting and important to record. Nevertheless, during my research I have bumped into various information and traces leading me to the Polish Parish in Dunstable (Luton's suburbs) and the Polish Club which is located there as well.

This is one of the weakest stories in the series, nearly hitting the point of being just a collection of unrelated shots; yet, it documents an important community aspect and also presents a person who with his work stands out.

The first time I met him at the church, he was just getting ready for another Polish wedding ceremony taking place in Dunstable. Without the organist, who apparently was running late, I was asked to play the wedding song off a cd recorder.

The Parish has existed since 1953 due to a large number of Polish ex-servicemen who decided to remain in the UK after the war. In 1967 the church was bought from the Methodists and a proper parish was established.

We've spent quite a while talking and discussing various issues (some not necessarily connected to the Parish) in the church hall/house. Every now and then, he'd stop and run upstairs to bring various papers, leaflets and so on.

The masses are usually jam-packed so you really have to shoulder your way through the crowd to get where you want. Here, I was just climbing the stairs to get onto the balcony when this man just rose before me. Without thinking I just hit the button and what wound up on the camera is this bizarre shot of these two men engaged in a weird sort of joga.

Since the accession of Poland into the UK and the influx of immigrants, the number of marriages within the Polish community has soared significantly. Along with that comes the number of Polish children born in the UK last year which reached more than 10 thousand. The numbers in this book aren't perhaps so impressive but they speak on their own anyway.

I took loads of totally crap pictures during the Polish wedding I witnessed there one day. It was only these two apparently Indian-looking guys who really caught my eye.

Readings for the day.

Another collection of traditional elements a Polish catholic church cannot do without.

"Polska Chrystusem narodow"

One of the most memorable moments was that little girl surrounded by adults - covering up her ears to mute the adult world.

Sunday Mass, Sunday Best, Sunday crowd all over the place.

Leading the crowd at November 1.

The All Saints Day at a Polish section at the local cementary and one of the men as a voluntary puppet in the one-man play.

Traditional catholic tokens in the middle of 21st century England are some of the most powerful symbols to me.

Leaving the church hall, empty as if waiting for the twelve to arrive.

Tomek

2008-02-16T15:49:00.018Z

He's probably one of the most enigmantic and most interesting people I've met here so far. Hitting early fourties, with a biography which could fill at least a book, I got to know Tomek (Tom) through a friend. Primarliy, he's a tatoo artist; yet in the past he's also worked on a Japanese farm, where he got to know the techniques of Aikido, sword-fighting and blacksmith skills. Later, he trained snipers, owned a smithy, worked as a freelance photographer and taught in a school for security officers. Anything missing?

The following session took place somewhere between November and December when I followed Tomek on another 'tat-job' done for a Polish guy living here in Luton as well. Since very recently Tomek is studio-based.

Przemek

2008-02-07T15:14:00.001Z

This week's coverage has been done on Przemek. A teacher of religious studies in Poland; here, a leader of a church group known as "The Chillout Club" and one of the initiators of the Youth Mass at the local church here in Luton.

'Our Lady Help of Christians' is one of very few Catholic churches in Luton, Bedfordshire. Masses are usually a mixture of different people, races and ethnic groups, Polish people being a significant one recently.

I got to know him and the rest of the club in March. Funny enough, Przemek comes from the same city I do; back there in Wroclaw (population of nearly 700 thousand) he used to live in a neighborhood right next to mine. And back there we could have possibly met in one school keeping in mind we're both teachers, yet here, we were sitting on the floor of the same church backroom.

Iggy, a Slovak buddy of mine from the university's Christian Union, is a fun of good food and snacks. He is one of a number of Slovak people who work with the Chillout Club.

Struggling hard with finding an appropriate job at the beginning of his staying in England, Przemek found out that a good friend of his was experimenting with setting a youth club in a local church, a place where young people could meet up after the mass and, without the sometimes patronizing voice of the priest, talk about their faith, God and everyday things.

Emilia, a Polish girl living in England for a couple of years has proved her artistic talent by means of numerous paintings and collage-type images; things that breathe in more light into dull interiors of the church hall.

"From a respectable teacher to a 'dishwasher'" his words seem to reflect thousands of similar stories as he reveals that he started as a kitchen porter in a restaurant. For him, at the beginning that was the most difficult part - a complete change of the way of how you view things and others perceive you. Also, the place itself - Luton's probably one of the biggest melting pots in Europe whereas Poland with its 97% of Polish people couldn't be more homogenious.

In the autumn/winter time the meetings kick off after 6p.m. and end around 9 so what we have outside is utter darkness. Sometimes, the warmth and cosiness of the place help you forget the English weather - the lonely umbrella being the only reminder of it.

The other day we got into a debate on religion-based schools: 'Yep, I guess Polish people prefer to send their kids to Catholics schools in England (a phenomenon unknown in Poland) because they know it offers them better tuition...and also, I don't know if there was any point of me teaching in a school which was predominantly Muslim, which seems to be the case in Luton. Plus, I don't know if the parents wanted that for their kids.'

'When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." Luke 14:15 (NIV) on Jesus's Parable of The Great Banquet.

Maria and...Maria, two Slovak students who along with Iggy outnumber any other nationality in the room.

Tea and biscuits? We're in England in case somebody forgot.

All in all, he was somebody this project had been done for. Somebody who came here to earn some money, but who didn't follow the ways of the majority of Polish people, those who slave off 12 hours a day just to go back home, lock themselves away, turn on the Polish tv, shop at a local Polish grocery, hear gossip and complaints on the lack of benefits they could use, and after that return home on boards of Wizzair of EasyJet just to find everybody amazed that their English consists of 20-30 words which hardly resemble the junior high school student level, not to mention the Shakespearean verse.

Maciek

2008-01-23T19:27:00.001Z

Maciek comes from Lower Silesia, the same region in South-western Poland I come. A guy that believes really in the Straight Edge movement, a fervent advocate of vegetarianism who seems to have never stopped fighting

Winding it up.

“I don’t know – the reason while I’m boxing is sport. I’m simply doing that for sport and really – I’ve got no clue.

"Sometimes Danny comes up with different ideas – such as making you leave the gym and go running outside in your intervals or getting you to do some killer work-outs"

The place does look crude, but it’s something that has always existed in the stereotype of boxing and boxing gyms

“Arena Luton” could have been a location in the crudest “Rocky” films. Wooden floor looks like one you’d expect to see in a barn, all of the boxing bags are taped to prevent them from falling apart. Triumphant Mohammed Ali looks at us from a poster

I can recollect my mum saying that she’d never want me to become a boxer because they’re simply…stupid. Too many punches in your head and there you go

"Dancing queens"

"Guy's got experience, he's been boxing for about 12 or 13 years...funny thing - he's never had a real fight, he's been always doing it just for fun"

“We’ve got different people coming here,” says Danny (coach) in his Lutonian accent, “Lots of kids as well, as young as 9 or 10, they start here” Danny looks at a blond kid playing with the ropes, “Are you having a break?”

This is the men's world

Plus, look at the genetics – they’re (Asians) the worst race when it comes to any martial arts – their bones are very weak, that’s why it’s technically the easiest to break a Pakistani’s guy jaw. Blacks are just the opposite, to knock them out you'll need a hammer in your glove”.

Getting ready

Fighting the bigger guy

Time is ticking fast

Talking thrash

“We’d always get into fights – that was the reality of who we were and where we lived”

On the ropes

Maciek needs a break because of a hit he got. “Damn, the guy is really hard to fight. First of all, look at how long his arms are, then it’s his experience – he economized on punches and winds up less tired”.

Dead tired after the scrimmage

When I start fighting and I win the first two fights) , I might go on; if I lose but I still feel like I did well, I’ll also stay, otherwise I’ll drop it”. Sports have always been a very important part of the immigrant experience, will it be so here?

One in a Million

2008-01-23T11:30:00.001Z

Being Polish in the UK has never meant being one in a million until the very recent times. The phenomenon which made hundreds of thousands of my fellow citizens come here in search of a better life, education or other reasons has been a topic of numerous conversations I’ve been involved in, both in the old country and here. There’s a couple of reasons why I have decided to embark on this subject, the number of the Polish people in here being only a minor one.

The objective of my project is to, in its course, create a gallery of Polish Portraits of people of groups who, here in Luton or Beds in general, break the stereotypes, do things that made them stand out, or play crucial roles in the community. I will try to show a person or a group on a weekly basis, documenting their activities by means of photojournalism. In my research, I have found people worthy showing and I hope to keep up with them and other ones which I might find along the way.