36/365: Macevas in the snow

36/365: Macevas in the snow, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 5th

Someone (superd?) from the currently unavailable Photojojo forums asked me about the Jewish Cemetery in Lodz, and I realised that I had only been there twice, and had no photos to show for it. Today was a sunny day, and I hesitated as cemeteries are probably best photographed when it's misty and dreadful, but the gates close after dark, so I couldn't expect to linger there after sunset. It worked out better than I expected. The sun was sharp, but I was among trees and gravestones, and up to my bottom in snow. Perhaps the cemetery does not look mystical or haunting in these pictures, but I like them anyway. I'll save the haunting for spring, when the rains come.

As usual, a bit of history about this place. The 'New' Jewish cemetery was built in 1892 on land procured by textile industry magnate and philantropist Israel Poznański (whose palace and factory I've already mentioned) when the first, 'Old' Cemetery dating back to 1811 was found to be full and impossible to expand. The project stumbled but gained speed in 1891 due to an outbreak of cholera near Lodz which caused a pressing need for a new burial site. Poznanski laid out the funds for the cemetery on condition that he would be allowed a large parcel for the construction of his impressive family mausoleum.

The New Cemetery suffered greatly in both world wars, and from destructive communist ideology later- the Old, first Jewish Cemetery in Lodz was completely destroyed in 1949 by construction work. The government of the time found no place for such sentimentalism and instead of renovating the Old Cemetery it built apartment blocks over the area, without even granting the respect of exhuming and moving the bodies.

The New Cemetery very nearly shared a similar fate, but luckily it remained mostly untouched until the free elections brought a time more respectful of history. It was not in good shape, however. World War One brought fights right to the cemetery grounds, destroying much of its architecture. During World War Two the Nazis left the graves untouched but took apart all the buildings, starting with the synagogue and ending with the wall. The cemetery had been included in the Litzmannstadt ghetto and many Jews, Gypsies and resistance fighters were executed right on its grounds. These deaths are commemorated on the so-called Ghetto Field, where a mass grave contains an estimated 43,000 victims of the Holocaust as well as ghetto hunger and misery.

The New Cemetery is said to be the final resting place of 160,000 people, many of them Lodz citizens of great renown. Today, after history's many shameful attempts to destroy or repurpose the area the New Jewish Cemetery is a protected national heritage site. It covers 96 acres- it is the largest Jewish necropolis in the world outside of Israel, and is under the care of the Monumentum Iudaicum Lodzense foundation.

More information about Jews in Lodz and the Litzmannstadt Ghetto can be found here. The cemetery website is here.

Please see my Jewish Cemetery Set on Flickr for the rest of today's pictures.

35/365: My code is wrong

35/365: My code is wrong, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 4th

It is not doing what I want it to do and that makes me angry. >:(

34/365: Tramway

34/365: Tramway, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 3rd

Sunshine! Sunshine! Can you believe it? To think I almost went to the cemetery to take dreary pictures of graves in the snow. This is the most colourful photograph I've taken this year, it makes me happy.

I don't know why I love Lodz so much. I would like to think that I am not so obnoxious as to adore this city for its filth; that is a stage common to first-year film students, but I graduated three years ago and should have been cured by now. It is only natural, when you're young and artistically disposed, to find beauty in every graffiti'd brick wall and see the deep agony of life in every drunken face, to want to show the world an image of real and brutal life however little experience your teenage self might have with it.

The thing is, while often morbidly beautiful, the decay of an environment and its inhabitants are not aspects of a community that should be admired. The sense of pride you get from living in a neighbourhood which many people would consider dangerous, where you regularly see vandalism, thuggery and drunks passed out in the street, is quite misplaced. Should I not be infinitely more proud of the newly renovated art museum around the corner? And, as a newcomer to this city, with only three out of seven years spent in this particular neighbourhood, am I even entitled to either feeling of pride?

I wasn't born here. I never struggled with poverty, never had to watch my city decay from lack of investments and the citizen's disillusion. Indeed, I come from the nearby capital which often looks down on Lodz in disdain, and calls it 'the province', 'the outskirts', a city not really worth the title. What used to be an industrial monster called the Promised Land ended up as a pit of unemployment, and the early morning weekday trains to Warsaw were full of stereotypes- poor, hard-working people who came to the capital to work in retail or the food industry, but could not afford to live there.

This is changing rapidly. I am glad. I do not think that it is right or in any way valuable to have condemned buildings lined up along the main streets. I do not want the XIXth century architecture which survived the war to waste away because of lack of care. I do not want people to hate the beautiful old houses they live in because they were never fitted with proper plumbing or heating; I do not want to see those houses demolished because nothing more can be done to make them inhabitable.

Still, for all I know they are dangerous and worthless, I find them beautiful. But I abhorr the idea of this affinity for decay being considered 'edgy', if only because it is not at all unique. The truth is I feel guilty when I walk into ragged courtyards, snapping away with my expensive camera at something other people call their daily hardship. It feels as if I were approving of the filth and ignoring the people who have to live with it- admiring the unusual, cruel beauty of a thought-provoking scene without actually allowing any thoughts to be provoked. Pathology is elevated to art- because when the photograph contains poverty or disease, it gains meaning. What meaning, exactly? No one can tell.

"They're slums," a woman shoveling snow told me today as I took pictures of her courtyard. "Just slums." I felt like a rich tourist in the third world- you know the kind, the one that books a three star holiday in Africa and comes back with a photograph of some dirty, local bead-selling child thinking they've 'seen the world'.

I suppose my excuse is I want these slums to be gone, but I would also like pictures of them before they disappear.

33/365: Winter Cemetery

33/365: Winter Cemetery, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 2nd

The Mania Cemetary (Cmentarz na Mani) takes its name not from an emotional disorder but from the nearby neighbourhood of Mania. I am not clear on the origins of that one, though. It is surrounded by the remains of Lodz's ancient woodland, most of which is now part of the Zdrowie park complex. The cemetery was founded in 1915 out of necessity, as the nearby Old Cemetery had been filled by 1888, leaving no burial ground in that part of town.

I took this photo from the second floor of a factory building which now houses, among other things, looms, a skate park, and a film studio where a lot of people I know are working right now, but I don't think I can tell you exactly what they're doing. ;) In any case I climbed on the windowsill for a picture, and Linlen drew a sketch of me and my camera.

You should have a look at Linlen's Monsters, by the way, they're the cutest thing. I discovered them a few weeks ago and never even realised I knew the person responsible!

32/365:Tomato soup

32/365:Tomato soup, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 1st

I am still very sore from yesterday's snowboarding trip which, being my first attempt at the sport, consisted mainly of wipeouts. I can't even sneeze without hurting, I ache when I try bending my right arm and I've got a limp. You will understand therefore why I didn't take the bus out to some exciting photographic location today, but only went to the Imax with a few friends to see Avatar (second time), and then returned home and made tomato soup. It is winter, unfortunately, so I had to use canned tomatoes (the fresh ones are completely tasteless this time of year). It was yummy.

In fact I think there is still some left at the bottom of the pot, excuse me a moment...

31/365: The Góra Kamieńsk ski slope

31/365: The Góra Kamieńsk ski slope, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 31st

Today was considerably more exciting than yesterday! Thanks to the spontaneity of a few adventurous friends with access to a van, I ended up on a ski slope. The surprising thing about this is we live on flat land- there are a few mounds and solitary hills scattered here and there, but nothing to be too proud of. And here, just 40 miles out of the city of Lodz, we find a proper ski slope.

The Kamieńsk Mountain (Góra Kamieńsk) is a ski slope set up on the largest elevation in central Poland, an artificial mountain which was the byproduct of nearby lignite or brown coal mining. The mound began piling up in 1977 and finally reached 1266 feet above sea level in 1993. The terrain has been reclaimed for nature by planting a forest and reintroducing widlife- it is now part of a park complex. There is a wind power plant at the top with fifteen turbines:

but the northwestern view is of the massive Bełchatów power plant which the lignite mine supplies with fuel:

The plant happens to be the biggest thermal power station in Europe, and since its two exhaust chimneys are almost a thousand feet tall, it's no wonder they are visible for miles around. The less glamorous statistic is its 2009 title of the biggest carbon polluter in the European Union.

The slope works year round and has artificial snow machines, but during winters like this they're not at all necessary. I know nothing about winter sports- I tried skiing once when I was ten, so my slate is practically clean. This time everyone decided to rent snowboards, and I didn't want to be stuck trying to ski all by my lonesome.

Now I am sore all over and I am not entirely sure my knees will work tomorrow, but I had the best time, even though I'm sure I looked like a fool.

30/365: Laundry

30/365: Laundry, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 30th

For a slow day, all I have is a last-minute photo of slowly drying bed sheets. I have to hang them up in my room because there is no space for them in the bathroom.

29/365: Christmas is over

29/365: Christmas is over, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 29th

But it is still snowing. January is coming to an end, and soon we will step into February, a month which, in Polish, is called Luty. The word means harsh, dangerous, terrible, menacing, and rightly so since February is when winter is usually at its coldest.

I'm glad for the fresh snow. It brings out contrast in the city, it gives a pure backdrop to things which would otherwise be lost in the mud. Like this discarded Christmas tree.

Besides, it is warmer when it snows. :)

I am having the hardest time picking photos for my 365 these last days, but I don't want to spam up my own blog with too many pictures all at once. Well, as always, there is more to see on my Flickr.

28/365:In the forest

28/365:In the forest, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 28th

Never ever use your built-in flash, they say. Well, I say otherwise.

I went to the forest again. Of course, there was no sunshine, but at least the temperature was just right. And it was snowing. My goodness, how it was snowing. Well, you can see for yourself in the photo. I was trying to get the falling snow with my flash without making the picture look cheap- I think I managed. I'm very happy with this shot, and pretty much all of the others, even if I didn't manage to get a good picture of the family of boars.

With all the snow walking I've been doing recently I'm seriously considering buying some snowshoes. Of course the problem is winters are unreliable- one year we're up to our necks in the stuff, the next it's all mud. Who knows if I'd ever use them again? But they would certainly come in handy. I had snow up to my knees more than once today.

27/365: More seats, please!

No, I didn't miss a day yet. But yesterday one of my flatmates was getting his Master's degree, and we were so busy taking the piss out of him all day that I didn't have the time to upload a photo. ;)

So, with congratulations to Konrad....

27/365: More seats, please!, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 27th

After a long long day of teasing, ribbing, and being taken the piss out of, Konrad (front row right) has passed his graduation defense and received a Master's degree. Well done, that man! And he got top grades all around.

Here we are back at my place, winding down at the end of the day with fake champagne in the japanese porcelain tea set my grandparents bought me to honour my own graduation three years ago. From left to right: Marta, Maciek, Robert, and our hero Konrad. I don't know how long all these people will be living with me but I hope they don't run away too quickly. :)