A karczeb is a root that is difficult to uproot, very deeply rooted in the ground, which remains after a tree has been felled. In Polesia and Podlasie (redions in Eastern Europe), the same name was used to describe people who were strongly attached to the soil, which had been cultivated for generations, and which their ancestors had ‘cleared’ with their own hands, ‘wiping out’ forests in order to be able to cultivate the land in their place. After dying, buried right next to the land they had cultivated during they lifetime, karczeby people became the land themseld, tended later by their descendants.
Book description:
‘Karczeby’ is a book that tells the story of man’s deep bond with the land. In one of the dialects used in eastern Poland, a mixture of Polish, Belorussian and Ukrainian, this was the name given to people who were strongly connected to the land they had cultivated for generations. The word also refers to a tree trunk with roots that remains in the ground after it has been cut down – a symbol of permanence and rootedness. The Karcheba person cleared forests by hand to turn them into farmland, and their attachment to the land was so strong that even in Stalinist times it was difficult to uproot them from it. They often paid a high price for this attachment, losing their freedom and even their lives. After death, buried close to their fields, they themselves became part of the land that their descendants cultivated. ‘Karczeby’ is not only a story about people, but also a reflection on belonging, memory and identity, which are inextricably linked to place.
O autorze:
Adam Panczuk, born in 1978, is a visual artist and documentary photographer who tells his stories through portraits, combining documentary and creative photography. His photographic project “Karczeby” – a story about man’s belonging to the earth – was awarded Best Photographic Book of the Year 2013 by the jury of the 71st Pictures of the Year International competition, and was also named one of the most promising photographers of the young generation by The British Journal of Photography magazine. Panczuk is a recipient of a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and a winner of many prestigious awards, including National Geographic, Magnum Expression Award and Grand Press Photo. He is involved in social projects, supporting excluded groups such as refugees, the elderly and children from smaller towns. In recent years, he has been active as an educator and curator. He was a lecturer at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw, and as a member of the Sputnik Photos collective, he co-founded and runs the Sputnik Photos mentorship program. In 2024 he defended his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava.
