michal jaworski // photography

a lot of things changed in the 90s in Poland. private business big and small from unlawful become desired and encouraged. very quickly a kind of make-shift capitalism emerged. the railway station was always a hub of activity. now it became a buzzing centre of business. small shops mushroomed; newsagents, 'snack bars', and what was - quite accurately - called '1001 bits and bobs'. there could be a few of them in a small town; in the cities there were tens, they flooded over from the building to surrounding areas and transformed them into small markets. this was exactly what Krakow main station looked like in early 00s. it was decided that for a city of such rank it was unsightly. ambitious plan was created. somewhere during realization a centre for culture and enterntaiment became a department store. on may ask if a shopping centre is really an improvement over what was there before, but - as they say - money talks. in the last winter before the old surroundings of the station were demolished and the traders evicted i went out to document that small trade ecosystem.

i used to live in two cities at the same time for a number of year; first because of studies and then because of work. i would spend half a week here and another half there, and in the due course where was home blended as to become meaningless. the twice-a-week train or coach journey was a constant point. over time i developed a curious relationship to the landscape i saw from the window of the vehicle. it was bleak and monotonous - pine woods because one third of the country is covered with pine woods; small towns hardly distinguishable one from another; some industrial structures mostly in decay. indistinguishable as it was, i knew it very well. having woken up from a nap a single glance was enough to know the remaining time of the journey. and yet it was completely alien. i saw so many times but never really experienced it, never got off on any of the intermediate stations. i tried to picture the landscape how i saw it from the windows and that relationship towards it.