Splinter — Ela Polkowska. Published by Blackbook.
There must be many families living in rural Poland on the margins of society, unwilling to conform to recognised conventions. Fortunately for us, Ela found this one.
Here is a family that refuses to throw anything away, but they don’t seem to ‘make do and mend’ either. There’s a sense that we’re watching the unit fade along with their copious possessions, and, indeed, a little digging online reveals that the family did, in the end, fall apart.
Ela, a Polish photographer now living in Sweden, visited the house several times over the course of a year. Her flash-lit, snapshot aesthetic emphasises the chaotic and claustrophobic dystopia she found within its walls. While work like this can often seem exploitative, there is abundant joy here, and a sense of the pleasure of simply being there. Somehow Ela seems a part of this glorious jumble.
The book is beautifully designed by Ania Nalecka-Milach, and I can’t recommend it enough. There are only 500 copies though, so don’t hang around.
Mark Power is a photographer and member of Magnum Photos.