Images of exhibits in a Polish museum shed light on the photographer’s family history and the way we view the pastThe word “folk”,as Aaron Schuman notes in his intriguing afterword to this photobook of that title, has several meanings. It can refer to members of one’s family, or to the ”ordinary people” of a locality or even an entire country,as well as to the traditional art and culture that has its roots in the beliefs, rituals and customs of those same people. Schuman’s book touches on all three as it delves into the rich and mysterious archive of the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków and, or through it,into his own family history.
Schuman’s interest in the archive began when he was asked to curate Kraków Photo Month in 2014. While being shown around the museum, the respected photography writer found that he was connecting with certain images and objects therein on a deeper level than the purely academic. Some kind of buried folk memory was being awakened that had to execute with the fact that his much grandfather was born in the village of Cierpisz, and about 150km east of Kraków,and had emigrated to America at the age of 22.
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Source: theguardian.com