Szkola Fotografii: A Tour

Sopockie Szkola Fotografii-WFH is located in Sopot. The two year, four semester photography school boasts a fully equipped dark room, a computer lab, a large, modern studio, and a small but growing library. The school's two director's Jerzy Hejber and Tomasz Maryks employ and work with several others to provide what they call a "multi-stage system of education."

Their system has three stages, the first spanning semester one and two of the program. During this stage students gain the basic theoretical and practical foundations for a career in photography. In the second stage, during the third semester, students build off of what they learned in stage one and, blended with high-skill, specialized lectures, gain intensive practice. The final stage takes place during the fourth and last semester. Here students attend graduate seminars and are required to produce a fourth semester thesis project in order to graduate.

We worked extensively with the school and it's students during our time in Poland. While in Sopot, it also served as a workspace with high speed wireless for our group.

Our first visit of the school, which was later in the evening, found the facilities quiet. The school is located in the mid to upper level of an apartment complex right off one of Sopot's busy streets. You must first ring a buzzer to be let in the building and then ascend several stair cases. Straight ahead, once the door is opened, lies a small room followed by a long hallway. In the room is a large desk for the school's secratery, Natalia Fereniec. Behind it is a smaller second desk and a large format Epson inkjet printer, used for digital prints.

The first door on the right once you enter the hallway brings you into the studios. From the ceiling hang soft boxes and strobes, all which can be maneuvered from a mounted system of rollers. The large, neutral-painted room can also take advantage of natural light from the many windows that remained covered upon our visit. The room has the ability to be sectioned off by a large sliding door and converted into two separate studios. Each of these two rooms also contains two backdrops stands, thus, at maximum capacity, making four studio workspaces.

Continuing down the hallway, the first door on the left provides entrance into a small lounge. Inside is a place to hang your coat, a small sink, and plenty of supplies for making coffee or tea. The second door gives access to a fully workable darkroom. Above the door is a light that is illuminated when someone is working in order to prevent any accidents from happening. The darkroom contains three enlargers as well as a large machine used for developing photographic paper. The third door to the left is the bathroom and the fourth is the computer lab and library. The final door holds the two director's offices.

The school had only recently made the move into the building that we visited. Though we never saw the old facilities, the current location was described as a big improvement. The small school was more than adequate for our uses and became a home away from home, a quiet refuge from the busy streets or rainy days in Sopot.

A look down the school's main hallway (standing from the director's office).

Two American students photographing the school's studio space.

American students taking advantage of the schools high-speed wireless.

Pawel Wyszomirski, an instructor at SSF-WFH, leads American students through a critique of images from a lighting workshop earlier that morning.

Jerzy Hejber shows a project he is working on after giving American visitors a brief tour of the school's facilities.

Street Performers

Street performers can be found lining the streets of many Polish cities. From guitar players, breakdancers, and human statues to clowns and vampires, performers tried to capitalize on the summer tourist population. Some performed near their homes while others traveled short distances by train to busier and more profitable cities.

What all seemed to have in common was a little creativity and a lot of patience. Some could be found performing throughout the entire day. One guitar player in Sopot was nearly famous to the locals who had seen him performing in the same general area for years. Another spoke English after 3 years in an English prison. He was a native Pole and performed in Sopot for supplemental income.

While some performers seemed to take their time "on stage" lightly, others took their work more seriously. One middle aged man playing accordion and dressed as a clown, would stop and gesture at the hat by his feet if tourists made an attempt to film or photograph his performance before paying.

Street performers, in all their many forms, provide a dynamic and often changing cultural landscape for tourists and locals alike. Whether in the busy streets of Krakow or a quiet alley in Sopot, performers play a lasting role in Polish cultural life.

The building in the background is called "The Crooked House" and is part of Sopot's eclectic atmosphere.

Stocznia Gdańska

Stocznia Gdańska, a large Polish shipyard in the northern coastal city of Gdańsk, gained international attention in the summer of 1980 when strikes lead to the formation of Solidarity, Eastern Europe's first independent trade union. The 1980s were marked by strikes, martial law and eventually free democratic elections in 1989. Solidarity played a key role in the changes that took place in Poland and the shipyard remains a symbol of historic importance in Poland and Eastern Europe.
Stocznia Gdańska, formerly the Lenin Shipyard, was founded in 1945. It was a state-owned enterprise that at times built ships for the Polish, USSR, Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, and East German navies, among others.
In August 1980, the shipyard became the center of internationally critical events. The famous strike of 17,000 ship builders, resulting from price increases and employee dismissals, spread to industries throughout the country and forced the government to legalize the the first non-communist trade union in the then Soviet sphere of influence. These events, led by shipyard electrician Lech Wałęsa, turned Stocznia Gdańska into the birthplace of the Solidarity movement that marked the beginning of the end of communism for Poland and much of Eastern Europe.
In 2007, pressure was mounted on the Polish government to reduce the capacity of the still operating but struggling shipyard or repay millions of euros in state aid.
EU rules clarify that aid for ailing shipyards can only be permitted if the state is also making efforts to cut costs aimed at restoring the companies long-term life, combined with the introduction of private investors. Without such moves, the EU claimed, any aid paid to Stocznia Gdańska is illegal and must be repaid. Yet the historical significance of the shipyard left the Polish government reluctant to cut the shipyards capacity too deeply.
However, the Polish government seemed pleased with the EU commission's 2009 decision. The commission approved the 251 million euros in aid that has been granted to the shipyard since Poland joined the EU in 2004. The catch was a restructuring plan that called for the closing of two of the yard's three slipways, ramps used for the building and repairing of ships and boats.
The shipyard is still operating in limited capacities and much of the massive terrain is leased to several smaller companies that renovate ships and yachts. The shipyard still provides plenty of historic entertainment for the many foreign and Polish tourists who can tour the facilities via the "Subjective Bus Line" and visit the workshop of Lech Wałęsa.
Tourists board a bus that will take them through the shipyard.

Tourists look out on and take photographs of the historic shipyard.

A worker stops what he is doing to look up at the passing tourist bus.

An employee climbs scaffolding to continue work on a small vessel.

Tourists look at a photo of Lech Wałęsa before touring his workshop.

Tourists line up to enter the workshop of Lech Wałęsa.

Tourists look around Lech Wałęsa's workshop.

The Shipyard's tour guide joke's with the audience.

Once in Wałęsa's workshop, tourists are invited to watch a video documenting the importance of the electrician in the 1980 strikes.

After the tour, souvenirs can be purchased of the Solidarity movement.

Streets of Kraków

After a 8-hour train ride, we arrived in Kraków while the rain was pouring hard. We set out the next day to enjoy the scenes in Kraków and take pictures. Tourists crowded the streets in Kraków. The Square was full with people - tourists buying souvenirs or little trinkets from stalls; people basking in the sun while having a cup of coffee; street performers having their pictures taken by tourists and so on.

Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle, having deep roots in Poland's political history, holds the bodies of the countries past kings, military leaders, and national poets. The complex, in Poland's southern city of Krakow, consists of a castle, cathedral, and various fortifications.

The recent death of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and plans to bury him in Wawel led to divisions across the nation. While the country was largely unified in it's mourning of the President's death, some questioned whether he

was worthy of being buried amongst kings. With campaigns against the decision and protests in the streets, others claimed that Kaczynski would not have been considered for Wawel if he had passed under natural causes.

Despite the resistence, Lech and his wife Maria were eventually buried in Wawel castle.