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KARCZEBY

by Adam Panczuk

Photographs: Adam Panczuk

Text: Kazimierz Kusznierow

Publisher: self-published

80 pages

Pictures: 23

Year: 2013

Comments: first edition of 550 copies including 50 collector's editions with print. size: 30 x 30 cm. design by Ania Nalecka /TBD

Karczebs
In one of the dialects spoken in the east of Poland, which is a mixture of Polish and Belorussian, people strongly attached to the soil they had been cultivating for generetations were called "Karczebs". With their bare hands Karczebs cleared forests in order to grow crops. The word Karczeb was also used to describe what remains after a tree is cut down - a trunk with roots, which remains stuck in the ground. This also applied to people - it was not easy for the authorities to root them out from their land, even in the Stalinism times. The price they paid for their attachment to their soil was often their freedom or life. After death, hurried nearby their farmland, a Karczeb himself became the soil, later cultivated by his descendants.

Awards:
Magnum Expression Award 1st Honorable Mention
National Geographic Photography Contest I prize in category Culture
Newsweek Poland Photo Awards II prize for picture story in category Culture
Grand Press Photo I prize for picture story in category People

Adam Panczuk is a member of the Sputnik Photos collective.