I grew up in Poland back then. Looking back at those photos, what is amazing is the serenity due to lack of advertising on the streets and on people's clothes. The world's visuals didn't scream at you back then (except for the occasional propagandist poster or banner, but these were not everywhere like today's advertising is).
BTW later, when I was a young teenager in Poland's nineties, already under neoliberal capitalism, I dreamt of the commercials on TV being informative and helpful instead of the brainwashing puke they were (and still are). As an Amiga fanboy, I especially dreamt of a commercial campain that would convince people of Amiga's technical strengths :) Ah, the innocent years of youth.
As a fanboy of a different now defunct computer manufacturer from the same time period I also dreamed similarly about convincing people that my team was the right team.
It seems crazy to me now. Not because they weren't really good products for the time but because I was hitching myself to a commercial organisation with its own agenda on everything. Unless you're a share holder cheering on a commercial organisation, as I did, is silly.
If I could go back in time and speak to my younger self I'd point out that at least with FOSS you've as much right to the future of a project as anyone else. RMS really is correct on that.
I grew up in the USSR and I dreamt of Lenin because he was as ever present as advertising and Jesus put together in the US. Huge red billboards were everywhere, with quotes from or about Lenin and the party he created. When commercials appeared, they at least seemed lively and exciting.
I remember ads you could find in computing/science magazines back in the 80s and early 90s in France, and they were all about technical specs and performance for certain use-cases. Pretty cool stuff. Now it's just colour puke and buzz-words.
Sorry, this has little to do with what Poland looked like in the 80s.
Being born and having lived there for the first few years of my life, these pictures looks as exotic and strange to me as pictures from Yemen or Kazakhstan.
I'm not saying they're not real, but these pictures are clearly selected to be as far from what an average Western person considers to be "normal".
I guess it's like going to the US, only focusing on the Amish and extrapolating their way of life to the whole country.
In that photo with the wicker-basket love seats on the beach — which I'm guessing is Sopot — we still have those. Also ul Mariacka looks no different.
I'm guessing you're from somewhere prosperous? I mean even today, yes Sopot and Warsaw are just masses of Porsches and pretty women, but that isn't the case in some less well-off areas.
I've been in Poland only in 2000's but while watching these photos I could not believe that this is what Poland looked in 80s. Looks like some kind of village in middle of nowhere in 60's. The pictures were clearly selected to portray it as somewhat poor and non-western. The question is tho: Why?
We are in the east of Poland and most of the farming scenes are still quite common. A lot of the clothing has hardly changed too for some older folks. It can be a real shock compared to the city.
I'm a kid of the '80s from fellow Socialist country Romania and this photo: https://i.imgur.com/LFWANdK.jpg could have as well been shot in my country back then.
Also, the image of the old Polish peasant lady crying just outside Auschwitz is really, really powerful: https://i.imgur.com/uqTGzLO.jpg . Her headscarf (we call it "basma" here in Romania) is almost identical to what my both grandmas used to wear.
Well, considering that the rural areas of Poland looked like that and seeing horse carts delivering coal in Katowice was nothing unusual back then I'm not entirely sure if it is so wrong considering how much of Poland is/was rural. Even though I must admit I miss this "modern socialist" architecture that was there in the bigger cities for sure.
Just a note - while photos are true, they should not be taken as the representative or a generalization of how average life looked like. Photos from an Indian reservation or city ghettos will show how the life in the US looks like for certain people, but not as all people in the US live. Obviously, a photographer will concentrate on more exotic topics from his perspective.
BTW, is that a feature of an old film, but all those photos look very very grim to me :) Even the ones where people joke and laugh.
A Belgian photographer once showed that he can create any picture he wants, using the same environment. Well worth the 3 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmbsXussxUc.
Contrast on the photos is cranked up and there are a lot of shadows (I think that's all natural for film, but dunno if also adjusted manually). Plus the photographer picked shots that look still, even frozen―more so when the objects have volume thanks to the contrast. Makes for an eerie and menacing mood.
Feels like a lot of that stark difference in that first pair was due to particularly present weather in the modern one vs a cloudy/grey day in the old one.
It seems to me that the photos are selected towards the more exotic to a Western photographer or viewer. You could also have shots of urban life barely distinguishable from that of 80s' NY―but that wouldn't be as interesting to viewers, would it?
It's hard and possibly erroneous to judge from this temporal distance, but the more I look through cultural artifacts (and what memories I have), the more I feel that the spirit of the time was similar in many aspects across the US, Europe and the USSR (and maybe SE Asia too). Probably because the economy became progressively more global, and because there was a steady trickle of Western culture into even the USSR proper, since the 60s.
> towards the more exotic to a Western photographer or viewer
I'd go with "distinctly Polish" in many cases. The folklore clothing, wood art, ceramic heater/oven, trabant, polonez, priests, village houses, etc. are not just exotic. For me they're very much pictures that identify the set as 100% Poland. There are some exotic things in PL that would be less relatable.
I think the photographer did an awesome job with the selection.
You're clueless and think you can judge this matter, while you ignore the fact that millions ran from Poland, East Germany, USSR,etc, risking torture and death, and ran only in one direction. And to you "the spirit of the time" was the same on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Having grown up near Amish country in the US, these pictures make Poland look like home. Fashion is different from the people I grew up around, but it certainly doesn't look like the "communist nightmare" that I was always warned that it was--it looks like it could've been right near me.
It's better than nothing, but please note that a lot of these are unfortunately inaccurate.
Eg. even sizeable cities such as Wrocław are referred to as "towns"... Poznań is supposedly located in the Silesia region... Sopot is referred to alternately by its Polish and German name (Zopott), and the German name is given as the primary one for Frombork (misspelled "Fronbork"), while the Motława river is named "Mottlau" exclusively for some reason, etc.
I grew up in Hrubieszow (one of the eastern-most towns in Poland) in the late 90s and early naughties before emigrating. The photos are very much in line with the scenes I have observed growing up. It's such a contrast to compare my current environment to the one portrayed in the photos (and still lived by some of my extended family members).
If these parts stay unchanged, we will soon see places like (in Poland and elsewhere) as an oasis from the super-advanced reality most of the population lives within.
Going off other comments here and stories from my parents, the commercials and ads back then were thought to present a more modern, futuristic, "better" life that people worked hard to obtain.
Soon, the commercials will present a simpler, older life that we dream of escaping to just for a moment. Interesting thought.
I’ve only been to Warsaw once, a couple of years ago, but has a strong mental image of ~80s Polish urban landscape formed from Kieslowski’s movies, esp. the Dekalog (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekalog) Only the last photo in the set, of kids playing on an abandoned car in a grim apartment complex matched that image.
BTW, if you’ve never watched this series you absolutely should, esp, Dekalog 1 should be required watching for technical people, as an antidote to the hubris we sometimes feel in describing nature. Now that I have a son at that age, it strikes even closer!
Highly recommend those. Photos linked in OP are cool and true, but very... selected. They show what was already sort of archaic even for Poles. Niedenthal is way more representative and famous - he was Lech Walesa's presidential photographer later on if I remember correctly.
Nice photos. They represent personal view of the photographer, as every photo does in the end. One thing can be captured in many ways, showing different points of view or emotions. Enjoy one point of view from one specific place, one photo at a time.
That photo of Lenin with the "Solidarity" newspaper and a sign on the jacket - nice humor and is pretty telling that Poland definitely was rejecting the socialism as a foreign object :)
This is wrong. "Solidarnosc" was more socialist than the ruling party! This common misconception. If you read their manifesto, you can see they wanted even more socialism. That movement was only about taking over. In 1988 communists started capitalist reforms similar to China, but fall of the Soviet Union gave politicians coming from the Solidarnosc a chance. First thing they did was reversing the free market reforms and moving Poland to be a socialist utopia it is today and wasting huge potential.
More like "poor rural Poland" but I guess it's not so catchy as claiming this is regular Poland in 80s where you could buy Coca Cola and watch American/French movies/TV shows. It's pretty sad to see someone pushing their agenda with such clickbait titles.
The boy's backpacks in the photo with them by the fisherman at the lake: they look like $500 backpacks. It's funny how some things have changed in price perspective.
Eh, they were made from artificial leather with questionable feel, and, though the seams could be strong, the work was likely rather imprecise, so it's not quite the same thing.
I highly highly recommend seeing the film Cold War, which is set in 1950’s-60’s Europe. The cinematography is near-perfect and the set design really takes you back to communist-era Poland and Paris.
Aside from the discussion on to what extent are these pictures actually representative of the overall conditions of the era, it's worth noting that the 1980s in Poland were particularly gloomy even by communist standards.
The system was clearly in the final phase of decline, and the crisis had struck hard.
The living standard had deteriorated considerably in comparison to the much more cheerful 1970s (when foreign credits helped to boost the consumption).
This shows in numerous statistics such as eg. alcohol or nicotine consumption, which peaked in the 1980s.
[+] [-] badpun|7 years ago|reply
BTW later, when I was a young teenager in Poland's nineties, already under neoliberal capitalism, I dreamt of the commercials on TV being informative and helpful instead of the brainwashing puke they were (and still are). As an Amiga fanboy, I especially dreamt of a commercial campain that would convince people of Amiga's technical strengths :) Ah, the innocent years of youth.
[+] [-] Lio|7 years ago|reply
It seems crazy to me now. Not because they weren't really good products for the time but because I was hitching myself to a commercial organisation with its own agenda on everything. Unless you're a share holder cheering on a commercial organisation, as I did, is silly.
If I could go back in time and speak to my younger self I'd point out that at least with FOSS you've as much right to the future of a project as anyone else. RMS really is correct on that.
[+] [-] yostrovs|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bayart|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agumonkey|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oblio|7 years ago|reply
I'd rather have billboards than oppression, but maybe that's just me.
[+] [-] Krasnol|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iagooar|7 years ago|reply
Being born and having lived there for the first few years of my life, these pictures looks as exotic and strange to me as pictures from Yemen or Kazakhstan.
I'm not saying they're not real, but these pictures are clearly selected to be as far from what an average Western person considers to be "normal".
I guess it's like going to the US, only focusing on the Amish and extrapolating their way of life to the whole country.
[+] [-] yakshaving_jgt|7 years ago|reply
I'm guessing you're from somewhere prosperous? I mean even today, yes Sopot and Warsaw are just masses of Porsches and pretty women, but that isn't the case in some less well-off areas.
[+] [-] romanovcode|7 years ago|reply
I've been in Poland only in 2000's but while watching these photos I could not believe that this is what Poland looked in 80s. Looks like some kind of village in middle of nowhere in 60's. The pictures were clearly selected to portray it as somewhat poor and non-western. The question is tho: Why?
[+] [-] dougmwne|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xHopen|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paganel|7 years ago|reply
Also, the image of the old Polish peasant lady crying just outside Auschwitz is really, really powerful: https://i.imgur.com/uqTGzLO.jpg . Her headscarf (we call it "basma" here in Romania) is almost identical to what my both grandmas used to wear.
[+] [-] MichaelMoser123|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Krasnol|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wwosik|7 years ago|reply
BTW, is that a feature of an old film, but all those photos look very very grim to me :) Even the ones where people joke and laugh.
[+] [-] koonsolo|7 years ago|reply
It has English subtitles ;)
[+] [-] aasasd|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gadders|7 years ago|reply
Before: https://i.imgur.com/18lEoGd.jpg
After: https://cdn.flixbus.de/2017-06/Gdansk-zwiedzanie.jpg
Before: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/image/PAR96165.html
After: http://www.psur.pl/ra/cmm_budynek_okm.jpg
http://navtur.pl/files/news/281.jpg
[+] [-] ido|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Markoff|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] testrun|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aasasd|7 years ago|reply
It's hard and possibly erroneous to judge from this temporal distance, but the more I look through cultural artifacts (and what memories I have), the more I feel that the spirit of the time was similar in many aspects across the US, Europe and the USSR (and maybe SE Asia too). Probably because the economy became progressively more global, and because there was a steady trickle of Western culture into even the USSR proper, since the 60s.
[+] [-] viraptor|7 years ago|reply
I'd go with "distinctly Polish" in many cases. The folklore clothing, wood art, ceramic heater/oven, trabant, polonez, priests, village houses, etc. are not just exotic. For me they're very much pictures that identify the set as 100% Poland. There are some exotic things in PL that would be less relatable.
I think the photographer did an awesome job with the selection.
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] yostrovs|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fiblye|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 7723|7 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RDx-QLW2Tk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g_Canal
[+] [-] jetrink|7 years ago|reply
https://pro.magnumphotos.com/Catalogue/Bruno-Barbey/1981/POL...
[+] [-] V-2|7 years ago|reply
Eg. even sizeable cities such as Wrocław are referred to as "towns"... Poznań is supposedly located in the Silesia region... Sopot is referred to alternately by its Polish and German name (Zopott), and the German name is given as the primary one for Frombork (misspelled "Fronbork"), while the Motława river is named "Mottlau" exclusively for some reason, etc.
[+] [-] jakubwaw|7 years ago|reply
If these parts stay unchanged, we will soon see places like (in Poland and elsewhere) as an oasis from the super-advanced reality most of the population lives within.
Going off other comments here and stories from my parents, the commercials and ads back then were thought to present a more modern, futuristic, "better" life that people worked hard to obtain. Soon, the commercials will present a simpler, older life that we dream of escaping to just for a moment. Interesting thought.
[+] [-] pjf|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dreta|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jun8|7 years ago|reply
BTW, if you’ve never watched this series you absolutely should, esp, Dekalog 1 should be required watching for technical people, as an antidote to the hubris we sometimes feel in describing nature. Now that I have a son at that age, it strikes even closer!
[+] [-] aquarin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d3ckard|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AstralStorm|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobthechef|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vondro|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] trhway|7 years ago|reply
That photo of Lenin with the "Solidarity" newspaper and a sign on the jacket - nice humor and is pretty telling that Poland definitely was rejecting the socialism as a foreign object :)
edit: thank you, corrected the link
[+] [-] jboxee|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] conanthe|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] AstralStorm|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Markoff|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thedaemon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aasasd|7 years ago|reply
‘Mass production’ goods from the 80s are now sold very cheaply second-hand, e.g. you can get these backpacks starting with $5, plenty for $15: https://www.avito.ru/rossiya?q=%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%8...
[+] [-] keiferski|7 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ImvkXgGVWw
[+] [-] V-2|7 years ago|reply
The system was clearly in the final phase of decline, and the crisis had struck hard.
The living standard had deteriorated considerably in comparison to the much more cheerful 1970s (when foreign credits helped to boost the consumption).
This shows in numerous statistics such as eg. alcohol or nicotine consumption, which peaked in the 1980s.
[+] [-] dariusjs|7 years ago|reply