Slide Show

Capturing Imaginative ‘Strangeness’ in Polish River Towns

Credit Tymon Markowski

Capturing Imaginative ‘Strangeness’ in Polish River Towns

The Brda River crosses almost 150 miles of northern Poland and isn’t particularly noteworthy — unless you live in Bydgoszcz, where the river flows straight through the city to create picturesque waterways similar to Venice’s canals. Tymon Markowski has lived in Bydgoszcz since he was a child and knows the river well, but until recently he knew nothing about the neighboring villages and towns also built on its waters.

A year ago, Mr. Markowski, a former newspaper photographer, sought to challenge himself with a long-term project. Instead of going to a foreign country, he wanted to stay and produce a particular portrait of his home. He was struck by a thought: Why not spend time getting to know the river?

“We all know how it looks inside the city,” said Mr. Markowski. “Outside the city, it was a mystery.”

He used Google Maps to virtually explore terrain and structures. Then he spent hours reading small publications from each town and village to identify interesting people and events he might photograph. When he was ready to shoot, he began with one agenda: Make images that were “as weird as visually possible.”

And weird they are.

Photo
The Center of Natural Education in Woziwoda upon the Brda has existed for 20 years. It is primarily devoted to children’s education. All the animal exhibits are made from carcasses that were found in the woods and taxidermied, and the wood used in the center’s construction came from the nearby Tuchola Forest. 2016. Credit Tymon Markowski

In one (slide 8), a man wades in a clumpy swamp created by the Brda’s waters. The man told Mr. Markowski that after he accidentally cut off the tip of his finger, regular dips helped it grow back — much to his doctor’s surprise. In another, four men carry a rocket ship well over six feet tall and made out of plastic bottles. It is one of the entries in the “Great Bottle Race” an annual event on the Brda. Then there are seemingly random physical objects, like a gun turret that was once part of a prop tank used in the filming of a popular 1960s Polish television show. Today, the turret is lodged in an empty field not far from the water.

As a second layer to these oddities, Mr. Markowski provides offbeat captions that are longer and more humorous than your typical who, what, when, where and why.

One of his photos (slide 16) shows a grinning man reclining in a lawn chair while dressed in mock-Napoleonic garb. Behind him is an RV and wet underwear hanging from a line. In the caption, Mr. Markowski tells us of a local rumor that has it that Napoleon and his men once crossed the Brda near Drzewicz in 1810. The man pictured is a tourist, and often travels to the river’s edge to take part in re-enactments.

But recently, a neighbor spilled the truth: She made up the whole legend with her friends at a party. “How could she predict that the whole scam would unleash the effect of visiting buses with French tourists?” Mr. Markowski wrote.

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An old hotel, Zacisze, along the Brda near Koronowo, was converted into a training center for prison officers. 2016.Credit Tymon Markowski

Mr. Markowski, who finds inspiration in the work of photographers like Martin Kollar, says the aim of his photographs is to use the Brda River as a vehicle to highlight a small fragment of Poland’s inherit “strangeness” and “lack of judgment on the imagination of citizens.”

“We have a lot of crazy ideas,” he said, speaking of his compatriots. “Some are amusing. Some are maddening. Some are just weird.”

Mr. Markowski’s project on the Brda River will be self-published as a book, “Flow,” in March 2017, and will be available on his website.


Follow @Andrew Boryga and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Tymon Markowski is on Instagram. You can also find Lens on Facebook and Instagram.

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