WOODEN ARCHITECTURE OF BESKID WYSPOWY – photography and nature workshops to save beauty and tradition

In 2014, together with the Commune of Kamienica and Los Polacos, we created a project for young people to raise public awareness of the region’s wooden architectural monuments. And all this was accomplished through photography.

The project was financed by the Civic Initiative Fund. It was aimed at social activation of youth and adults in the Kamienica Commune. The goal was to bring tangible results in the form of increased social activity, cultural awareness among residents, with emphasis on the native wooden architecture, whose unique character will thus still be present in the future. Material proof of the measures taken was a printed publication.

In the area of the Beskid Wyspowy, that is, the Kamienica Commune, there is a problem of disappearance of small wooden architecture. Unique in the country, it is an important component of the region’s culture. The project was designed to help preserve the idea of this type of construction and promote the heritage of the past.

The project consisted of a workshop, an opening and a publication

The workshop consisted of a series of five meetings with photographer Marek Piatkowski, who led them. At each of the classes the children learned something new. Starting from the basics of photography, photo composition, lighting basics, camera construction, to the methods of photographing this type of special architecture, the basics of photo processing in a graphics program, to the ways of interviewing the inhabitants of the photographed objects. An important element was to instill curiosity about the history and traditions of wooden houses. At the last class, workshop participants had the chance to create a dozen or so mock-ups inspired by buildings previously observed and captured in photographs. Of course, there was no shortage of works that were a creation of the imagination, but there were also some that almost perfectly reproduced the wooden buildings that exist today.

The project culminated in a vernissage, which was opened by the project’s originator and coordinator Joanna Mieszkowicz. She appreciated the workshop participants for their activity, ingenuity and willingness to learn, despite the fact that the workshop was held during the summer vacations. The vernissage was also attended by a representative of the Kamienica Commune Office, a partner in the project – Jarosław Augustyniak shared his thoughts on the problem of disappearing wooden architecture. As he himself lives in a similar house, he is a living example of the fact that everyone can contribute to the preservation of the cultural heritage of their “little homeland.

The finale of the evening was the awarding of the competition for the best photographs of children and young people participating in the workshop and the presentation of prizes. Forty-two photographs participated in the competition. 11 prizes were presented. The works were considered the best: Robert Majchrzak – 1st place, Alicja Kwit – 2nd place, Klaudia Mikołajczyk – 3rd place, Katarzyna Franczyk – 4th place. Each of the aforementioned winners received a digital camera.