Visited an odd part of my polish hometown - a small area which somehow avoided progressing in time past WW2
An area of poor, small houses clumped together, surrounded by contemporary districts
A maze of narrow dirt "streets", each one with a proper name and probably over a century of history behind them.
Basically a scaled-down version of the infinite american suburbs, each plot of land tightly packed with sheds, gardens or fruit trees. Or rubbish, mostly, these days.
An anomaly nearly in the middle of an otherwise modern eastern european city.
Absurdly tiny, old houses, if you can call one room a house. Few remain inhabited, though.
I realise most of these fall in the snapshit category, but having browsed /p/ for some time now, I hope these pictures might be somewhat exotic to a western viewer.
The present finds its way to creep into the surroundings. I've focused on the obviously old and crummy stuff, but there are plenty of renovated, even modern houses in the area. Only a bit of a slum, then.
Some people still keep livestock, less than half a mile from the nearest McDonalds. This is probably my favourite ridiculous thing about the district.
Well, these do give off a pretty convincing "Shot in the 1940s by someone with a terrible camera and cheap film, and then the film was left in an attic for 70 years and discovered by someone going through stuff at an estate sale" aesthetic. Not sure that the content is really anything to look at though. What's with the weird sepia stuff?
If these were taken on a digital camera and processed "normally" they wouldn't even be RPT material. It's just you walking around and taking photos of what's around you. Nothing to say, nothing to remember, nothing unique. Just "the view over there" "This window" "Look, an electrical pole"
All these are from a roll of Ilford Pan 400 dev'd in caffenol (Delta-STD ver.) and scanned on a 12yo flatbed shot with either a Mir-1B 37mm, Flektogon 20mm or Industar-50-2 50mm, in terms of technicalities.
>>2771217
Well you weren't off by much image quality-wise.
>What's with the weird sepia stuff?
I found some images looked beter in monochrome than pure grayscale, no clue why, totally subjective. That's it.
As for your opinion about the content, sure.
It's odd to walk around a place that belongs 60 years in the past and I wanted to somehow preserve the sights that won't last much longer, that's all.
I quite like these. It's like the city has grown around a tiny village.
If the people own these plots of land they are probably holding out on selling them. I bet the council would like to build a shopping centre there or something.
Is the area a well known curiosity? Are the people wierd and old or do families live there too?
Reminds me of the city my grandparents live, wanted to document that city in the near future too.
Good stuff
>>2771238
You're bang on about everything you asked about save for the area being well known. Infamous, possibly.
There's a real estate developer company that's slowly yet gradually buying them out, patiently, over many years.
About 60% of the plots are owned by poor/unemployed/retired/chav-ish people or abandoned/unused, with the family/relatives living normally and just keeping the land. Some of the area's already being colonized by modern apartment buildings, as seen here >>2770672
Is the area a well known curiosity? - not really. Poles have a very destructive/utilitarian approach to stuff from the past - it symbolizes poverty, low status, the nouveau riche all tend towards kitsch, showy stuff. Brick squat houses with concrete columns by the front porch, plaster statues in the garden, the works. If it's even marginally old, tear it down, demolish it, never speak of it again. It's truly an odd, outlandish area, even for polish eastern bloc standards.
>>2771248
>Poles have a very destructive/utilitarian approach to stuff from the past
Does this apply to "quaint" rural villages too?
>>2771255
Oh yes like you wouldn't believe. "Old" equals not worth preserving. The favourite demolishion method is waiting till the building collapses on its own. No fuss with documentation, procedures, anything. sry for p&s quality, this is a non-/p/ pic
I really love to hang out somewhere like this. We have similar "old and not worth to preserve" little towns here in Estonia too. Soviet times I guess.
>>2771257
liverpool uk used to do that. we had a lot of listed buildings. that means you have to preserve them unless they're a danger, but the city had no money, so the council would just let them become dangerous so it was legal to pull them down.
The general idea here is bretty good, and there are some good pics as well. Keep it up.
>>2771245
Definitely do so while you have the chance, while it lasts.
>>2771295
eastern bloc represent eh?
>>2771346
I'm too bad at this stuff to properly depict most of what I saw there, regrettably. Took like 7% of the shots I'd want to capture.
If anyone has any similar stuff lying around it'd be awesome if you posted it itt, interested in learning how others approach this kind of decrepit/poverty/oldstuff theme.
>>2771257
That's a shame. Here in the UK we're kind of obsessed with old stuff and history. There are quite strict rules, if you live in a listed house you can't do certain alterations to it.
Most people here would love to live in an old cottage in a little village. Usually in villages like that you can only build new houses that fit the "style" of the area.
>>2771321
>we had a lot of listed buildings
Fellow scousefag here. We still have but yes I remember that. A lot of interasting architecture is at the same risk now. "Stop the Rot" in the Echo springs to mind.
I'm unsure about saving Ringo's house and the Welsh streets. Tourists like to see it and they are good examples of terraced housing but i'm pretty meh about the Beatles.
The cinemas in the news at the moment are another story, probably too expensive to restore/preserve though.
>>2771202
Pretty interesting stuff. Where is it?
>>2771585
I know bruv, you lot have it all sorted when it comes to appreciatin' over two millenia worth of heritage. Being a never-taken-over (normans don't count, they made the Domesday census book thing after all) island helps. Most centuries-old towns here lack any pre-ww2 architecture, courtesy of soviet and german explosives.
>The cinemas in the news at the moment are another story
fug m8, multiplex cinemas killed off all of our native, private old ones too ;_;
>>2771590
In a city in eastern Poland.
>>2771603
>In a city in eastern Poland
No shit. Thanks for pinpointing that for me, especially since I'm a fellow polfag.
>>2772040
Białystok, then. an area sandwiched between Kopernika, Wyszyńskiego, Młynowa and Bema, if google maps are your thing.
>>2772228
*Balstogė
