The pictures in this series show the people of a village called Mielnik in the eastern part of Poland, 10 km from the Belorussian border. I made them in the years 1979-1985 during my frequent stays there, mainly on vacations and weekends. It was at the beginning of my work as a professional photographer.
I found the people so friendly, so sincere and open to me and my work that it was a real pleasure making those pictures. After I build a house in 1990 I seldom made pictures of my neighbours.
I tried to show a picture of a polish village in the remote part of Poland (if in such a small country there can be remote places). After the changes on 1989 things begun to change rapidly and Mielnik took part in those changes, so now its a different place with different people.
Last year I showed those pictures at an exhibition in the Mielnik local museum (around 80 photographs) I went around the village and Mielnik county trying to find those people or their relatives and friends, inviting them to the exhibition. It was a huge social success. People were really moved and touched. There was laughter and tears. For the first time in my photography career I saw the real power of photography.
