A photography archive preserves Polish protests as they unfold in real time
28 October 2020
Text:
Paula Erizanu
A Polish photographers’ collective is archiving the country’s protests on their Instagram account @app_app.
As the Polish government further restricted the country’s already draconian abortion laws on 22 October, @app_app has been documenting the drastic change in the most recent protests sweeping the country. “These protests have marked a major change in the language, scale, and methods of protesting,” founding member Rafal Milach told The Calvert Journal. “The slogans are much stronger and more aggressive. Women and men from smaller towns and villages joined the protests in larger numbers than ever before,” the photographer added. “This protest definitely belongs to the young generation, which loaded the protests with an incredible energy.”
Run by 13 photographers based in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, and Rzeszów, the Instagram account complements the collective’s photo archive website.
Launched in 2016, when the ultra-conservative PiS party first rose to power, the platform aims to “document socio-political tensions in the streets of Poland”. In addition to supporting the women’s fight, the archive also shows images from LGBTQ demonstrations, as well as protests in solidarity with the ongoing struggle for democracy in Belarus.
