Polska Britannica at the Fort Institute of Photography documents the Polish community in England’s East Midlands from the 1970s through the 1980s.
Siegieda photographed weddings, religious celebrations, Saturday schools, boarding houses and everyday family life.
Many of his subjects had settled in Britain after serving with Anders’ Army, a Polish force formed in the Soviet Union during World War II.
After the war, its soldiers fought alongside the Western Allies. Many remained abroad rather than return to communist-ruled Poland, where veterans associated with the West could face repression.
Siegieda, born in 1954 at a displaced persons camp in Burton on the Wolds, Leicestershire, grew up within that community. Polish was his first language, and he began learning English when he entered school at age 5.
He said photography helped him maintain a Polish identity that he often concealed from British classmates.
"When I was a little boy and a teenager, I did not invite friends home," he said. Teachers and classmates struggled to pronounce Czesław, so he began using his confirmation name, Jan.
"Explaining our situation and our history seemed too complicated, so we tried to avoid questions," he said. "These photographs helped me preserve my Polish identity. That is why I took them with my heart."
Siegieda studied photography at Nottingham Trent University in the 1970s. His photographs attracted attention and appeared in an exhibition in London that later traveled to his hometown of Loughborough.
The response from the Polish community surprised him.
"I was enormously excited, but my community did not feel the same way," he said. "They felt uncomfortable. These people had spent their entire lives since the end of World War II hiding their Polish identity."
Although deportation was unlikely, many continued to live with fears formed by war, displacement and political persecution.
Siegieda recalled finding a small parcel wrapped in brown paper while clearing the home of an elderly Polish couple after their deaths. It contained rice and sugar, provisions apparently prepared for a sudden departure.
"They did not want to draw attention to themselves," he said. "They simply wanted to continue living."
Siegieda decided to keep the photographs out of public view while that generation remained alive. Much of the archive stayed in drawers for more than 40 years.
He began publishing photographs online in 2016, two years after his mother's death. Members of his own generation responded positively and thanked him for documenting their lives.
The images also resonated with Polish emigrants in the United States and Canada, he said.
"People can find something for themselves in them, even without knowing the cultural context," Siegieda said. "These photographs are for people."
His 2020 book of photographs, also titled Polska Britannica, received support from Martin Parr, the influential British documentary photographer who died in December.
Parr wrote the book’s foreword and praised Siegieda’s careful record of a small part of British society.
Siegieda said Parr invited him to the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol after seeing several of his photographs. Parr was surprised that the work had remained largely unknown and helped promote it.
"Martin was a generous person and helped photographers whose work he valued," Siegieda said.
Siegieda continues to favor 35-millimeter black-and-white film, which he said gives photographs a quality that digital technology cannot reproduce.
He is now planning a complementary photobook, Desi Britannica, examining the South Asian communities he also photographed in Britain.
Polska Britannica runs through September 6 at the Fort Institute of Photography in Warsaw.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP