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InspirationPhotography

The photographer who walked 2,000km from Russia to Poland to retrace his grandfather's daring escape

Polish-born, Cardiff-based photographer Michal Iwanowki can truly be said to have suffered for his art: his photobook Clear of People is the result of a walk of a whopping 2000km from Russia to Poland.

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Snow-covered hay bales stacked behind a wire fence with bare winter vegetation in the foreground against an overcast sky

The journey was a retracing of the steps of his grandfather Tolek and great uncle Witek, as they escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in 1945. The result is a set of haunting yet quiet images, showing sometimes barren landscapes, snow, and horizons that speak of a chill that comes from combining the present with horrific remembrances of the past.

"I followed his footsteps for personal reasons. Hoping that if I walked long enough I might find him. Tell him it mattered. Hoping that the landscape might connect me to a time and people long gone," says Iwanowki. "But what had started as a quiet tribute soon turned into a meditation on the strength of the human spirit. How do you carry on when your body gives up? What hope drives you blindly forward when your life is so obviously disposable?

"I have no interest in judging history, nor am I interested in glorifying my relatives. But just what happens to all those people who one day wake up to a war? Who mourns the lost ones? Our landscape is crowded with ghosts on their way home. East. West. North. South. There is no room in history books to fit all those people. This book is theirs."

An exhibition of Clear of People is currently on show as part of Photo Ireland Festival in Dublin until 31 May.

A red and white bus travels across a frozen, snow-covered landscape beneath an overcast sky, with forested hills visible in the distance
A winding dirt path stretches through a misty forest of bare deciduous and evergreen trees under an overcast sky
Dense birch forest with bare undergrowth and a single faded blue pole running through the centre of the composition
A long freight train with cylindrical tanker cars stretches across a snow-covered landscape dotted with bare trees and shrubs, with a misty forest visible in the distance
Tall pine trees with reddish trunks stand in heavy snow and mist in a winter forest landscape
Solitary figure standing on a snow-lined road shrouded in mist, with bare trees and utility poles visible through the haze in a desolate winter landscape
Small dark spider on translucent fabric or membrane with blurred background, from Michal Iwanowski's photobook Clear of People
Aquatic plants with exposed root systems partially submerged in murky water, documenting the landscape traversed in Michal Iwanowski's 2000km journey retracing his grandfather's escape route from Russia to Poland
Derelict Soviet-era building standing alone in a barren landscape with a white car parked nearby, bare trees scattered across ploughed fields under overcast sky
Bare trees with skeletal branches creating a dense woodland canopy under an overcast sky
Snow-covered forested landscape shrouded in mist and low clouds, with a bird flying in the distance
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