Streets of Crocodiles
Photography, Media, and Postsocialist Landscapes in Poland
Distributed for Intellect Ltd
This powerful presentation of photographs of Poland from the late 1980s to the present depicts the hybridized landscape of this pivotal Eastern European nation following its entry into the European Union. A visual record of the country's transition from socialism to capitalism, it focuses on the industrial blue-collar city of Lodz—located in the heart of New Europe and home to nearly one million people. Photographer Kamil Turowski's monotones are captivating—seeming to conceal a looming threat—while Katarzyna Marciniak's accompanying text expands on the photos and the "crocodilian" texture of contemporary Eastern Europe. A walk on the wild side, Streets of Crocodiles captures viscerally the changing landscape of postsocialist Poland.
“Streets of Crocodiles is a walk on the wild side, an expedition down a melancholy boulevard of dreams.”—J. Hoberman, film critic and author of The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism
“A beautiful and critically significant book which mixes photography and critical essays to explore postsocialism in Europe. Focused on Poland and on the city of Łódź, this is a unique and powerful document of the transformations of Eastern Europe post-Berlin Wall, and perhaps most importantly and shockingly an exposure of the much older hatreds which remain intact. . . . The photographs by Kamil Turowski are stunning and Marciniak is leading the field in cultural studies work on Eastern Europe. A reminder that 'new Europe' is also old Europe, Streets of Crocodiles is a striking accomplishment.”
"This disturbing collection of photographs by Kanal Turowski, both color and black and white, show the city, decrepit and dead, while foreign posters advertise the excitement and promise of things to come. Katarzyna Marciniak's essay, "Eyes Wide Shut," speaks of the transition into the new European identity. . . . The book is a thoughtful discourse on the problems still facing Poland."—Polish American Journal
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Hunting for Crocodiles
J. Hoberman
Preface
Kamil Turowski
List of Photograph Titles
Photographs
1. New Europe: Eyes Wide Shut
2. Postsocialist Hybrids
3. An Act Against the Wall
4. Afterword: Pedagogy of the ‘Post’
Index
Art: Photography
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