Pics of Warsaw by the Guardian's David Levene

Every Pole an expert of photography :D There is a reason why he is at the top of his game.

I don't know about "every Pole" but I like me a good picture, sir ;-p

Me too Mam ;)

The Economist's 'Intelligent Life' magazine published some beautiful pictures of Kraków last year - I showed it to some Poles and they were horrified. Why? Because it showed buildings with faded elegance, street traders, cobbled streets old kiosks - the real day to day Poland - and not shopping malls, stadiums, and 'reprezentacyjny' things.

As for pictures of milk bars, there are thousands of them and they are special to Poland (and popular, given the queues). A picture of a new motorway or power station is boring and could be anywhere.

Rugged Poland is rather interesting.But you have to show the real stuff.Like strange gothic churches,trimmed down communist buildings,heavy baroque buildings close to each other and of course the amazing slavic chick flowing between them.

Nobody wants pictures of power stations. Bye the bye, one of the pictures in the slideshow we are commenting on is a picture of the Vistula - showing a power station and some other industrial buildings plus a bit of concrete plus the river itself, looking strangely constricted. I used to live in Warsaw for many years and have spent many a day out on the river bank, chilling with a beer, and I can confidently say that to find such an uninteresting angle and shot really must have taken a lot of time and effort. This particular picture could have truly been taken anywhere and nowhere.

Ask your friends in America how many of them would like to visit Lodz or Katowice. Those towns are all like in these pictures. Unexeptionary, extraordinary trips to slums. Hey, let's made a slums heritage park - exclusively for rich foreigners!

I know the one you mean - atmospheric, moody and unmistakably Poland. What would you have published a picture of? Złoty Taras? Marie Curie's birthplace? Marina Mokotów?

What is so Polish about it then? It reminds me of North-East London for some reason. Someplace between Walthamstow and Edmonton, where those huge gas drums, canals, and industrial parks are.


Why not the Vistula embankment? But something slightly less tedious? Do you seriously think that if there is anything aesthetically pleasing in the photo, the picture would be ruined? And by aesthetically pleasing, I do NOT mean "cute" or "sweet", OK? ;-)

This is how Poland looks to the foreigner.These pictures are from the '90s.

galenfrysinger.com/warsaw_poland.htm

This is also realistic.You feel a bit suffocated because buildings are very close to each other.There is tension.

It isn't actually a power station, it's Elektrociepłownia Żerań


Exactly - like much of Warsaw.


You mean prettier?


I don't have friends in America (well, one person I know emigrated there) and in any case, those pictures, which you evidently havent looked at, aren't from a travel guide or a tourist brochure - they aren't meant to encourage anybody to visit. They're meant to capture something of how things really are. Not show some chocolate box image that Poles would like to present to others.

Well, heating and power station then. No difference in the grand scheme of things ;-p

I've had a look at levene's photo library and it seems that the warsaw photos are typical of his style.

he shoots what's in front of him and nothing more. one might argue that that is the beauty of his technique.

his work in other styles ranges from ordinary to good.

his arranged celebrity shots don't come close to those of terry o'neill

with so many gifted amatuers about i'd expect something more from a pro.

Wow! A Pole has almost admitted they're wrong - I should crack open some champagne ;-) Then again, I was partly wrong too - it's Siekierkowska, since the hotel ZNP is on the right.

Seriously, that picture really does capture something of the reality of Warsaw. Anyone can find very well taken pictures of the Starówka or postcards of the Pałac Kultury etc - but this is an expert photographic artist recording his impression of a city and its suburbs.WB sums him up well - I see something of Annie Leibowitz in his style.

When I'm sitting in my cabin in the middle of the Atlantic during a force 9 gale these are the pictures I will look at to remind me of home - not a postcard of the peacocks in £azienki Park.

I've looked on them. And guess what? I've never ate at milky bar.

I don't feel ofended or whatever, just it makes me laugh when people from rich countries are excited about visiting slums... people have short memories, don't they?

Hey I have a tile furnace in ma grandma's house - do you think that I possibly could make some money on it as tourist attraction?

I take a lot of photos of such things/places. it's about telling a story.

hahahahahahaha how is the weed , tastes good?

Millions have - most big cities have plenty of them. Would you prefer he took a photo of Maccy D's?


I don't think many are. Tourists however do want to visit things that are real and atmospheric - I can't imagine many tourists wanting to see gated estates and supermarkets!


Unlikely since they're nothing out of the ordinary - but don't make the mistake of ripping it out - they are an original feature and look great. And exist in richer countries than Poland - they're very traditional in Germany too...

this is how I would photograph Warsaw or any other city for that matter. I am not interested in touristy places at all, but in the reality. Good job.

Hardly, I was brought up in the crime and murder capital of Europe. In probably it's most notorious schemes. First thing I said to my gf when I moved to Nowa Huta (first time ive ever been to Poland) was how great the place looked.....a look of shock came across her and her parents faces.

Nice work, and I wouldn't call it amateurish, no way.
I like what he's doing with the light, especially the picture of the stadium and another one, number 21, with the tram tracks - they get a nice graphic quality.

I also like it that he didn't choose a sunny day to shoot and make things brighter. He's got the right light for the season and the place, you see the sky is overcast and feel the cool fresh early-spring air, that's how it gets then, Poland is not a Mediterranean country after all and for me the light is one of the basic things shaping the feeling of any place. He's just got it right.

And the building in Próżna is simply fantastic, it's like a close-up of a very very old person.

The bad pictures are not balanced by prettier ones , it is not the real Warsaw showing its everyday life . Typical Warsaw is a thriving place with hundreds of new subdivisions not old comunist era buildings .

This is not a place of starving homeless . Warsaw is a town with more than a hundred of higher educational institutions [quote]with over 300 000 of students . Where are those young people or bussiness oriented people ? Where are the districts of office buildings which look like the the best in the world with outstanging architecture . He definitely didn`t show the proper face of Warsaw . Ugly doesn`t mean artistic . I admire artistic pictures but showing something interesting of architecture some unique face or a special moment .

For example : Warsaw subway won 1 place among worlds the best for its architecture . Did he show it ? NO !

You sound just like those old communist era tourist organisations - Intourist comes to mind. People wanted to see churches, bars, markets, and they bussed people to hydroelectric dams, tyre factories, universities etc. They still do it in North Korea.


This sort of thing exactly.


And this is just untrue - the centre of Warsaw has thousands of communist-era buildings, some of them very large indeed.

Are you frustrated by something ? I am not ! Just feel that someone did a lousy job .

They don't need to be, he is showing a story of another side of Warsaw. One that is not being told so often maybe.


Nobody, even the photographer is suggesting that Warsaw is a flee-market town. I don't think you understand clearly the idea of photojournalism.
He is telling a story, not a balanced view. He is telling the story of the more deprived areas of Warsaw, maybe what he is trying to highlight is that fact that even with Warsaw becoming a more modern city, there is still areas that have been left behind.


For the same reason as this, Where are the poorer districts and industrial areas in the tourist books?

It looks rather like you are - I'm really happy to see those photos - they are great! What views would you have chosen?

Monia, I think you're barking at a wrong tree, this is not a tourist folder nor a City Hall presentation, it's an effort to touch the spirit hidden beneath your "districts of office buildings" and "hundreds of new subdivisions". These you can find everywhere, in any city around the world. What he's trying to show is unique to this specific place.

Whenever I'm in Warsaw I see lots of those old communist era buildings and plain people in the streets, just like in these pictures. The businessmen are probably too busy with their businesses to be seen. Plus, they all look the same, so what's the point of shooting them?

Oh really ? I asked about young people not businessman . I live in this city and my idea of normal life differs from yours so immensely , but you know better I guess ( from books I suppose !)

Poor people live in your city aren`t they ? Whats so special about polish poor people , whats so unique about them ah?


No doubt me....... this is the most attractive view you could possibly imagine , no jokes .

Unique because they live in a city that is flaunted as a modern metropolis. They are the history of the city because they haven't changed much over the years. That's where you find your story, the story not published in most books.

In Krk as a bit of a project me and my friend used to take photos of the local homeless people and interview them to hear their stories. We were going to publish it one day....but it fell off the radar as with most bright ideas. Think I may still have some of the pics and some of the stories were fascinating.