Clear of people: Polish photographer Michal Iwanowski in London photo book launch

Next week Polish-born photographer Michal Iwanowski is launching his photobook Clear of People in London, a project that saw him walk over 2,000 km to retrace his grandfather’s escape from a Russian gulag.

Now based in Cardiff, in autumn 2012 Iwanowski spent a month at an artist residency at Kaunas Photographers’ Gallery in Lithuania, an experience that led him to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather Tolek and great uncle Wiktor, who escaped from a Russian gulag in 1945 to return to their homes in the Polish city of Wrocław.

What was initially a quiet and personal tribute soon transformed into a broader and deeper meditation on the strength of the human spirit.

Iwanowski is now Cardiff-based, having studied Documentary Photography at the University of Wales, Newport. His photographic work centres on the relationship between landscape and memory.

Iwanowski will present Clear of People, published by Brave Books Berlin, at London’s Photographers’ Gallery on 20 April. You can find more information here.