Dobrocin Photography - M1key - Michal Huniewicz
During my most recent trip to Poland, I went on a road trip with my mum and then with my dad.
I had a rare opportunity, so to speak, to spend a few days in my home village "where it all began" - Dobrocin. Small and insignificant as it may be, it continues to inspire and motivate me, even after all those years I've lived away and abroad. It's a big deal for me to visit Dobrocin as I only get to it every couple of years.
Welcome to Dobrocin
When I was a 10-year-old kid, other children and I had to walk this path at dawn with Chinese-style lanterns we had made at home, candles flickering inside, through thick fog and murky woods wet with dew to the church on top of the hill, long before the rest of the village would wake up.
ISO 640, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Ah, Those Blocks
Ours was not a romantic village with slanted red roofs - most of us lived in characterless grey concrete blocks like this one. Only a select few lived in their own houses, and I remember being jealous of them.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/180s.
Cold Floor
But our village was also where an old Prussian palace stood, and it was unlike anything we had seen.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/850s.
Inside the Palace
Once in a blue moon, we'd get to visit its dusty rooms, some of which were back then filled in with Communist books about Lenin. The same books would end up in a pile of mud nearby, some time after 1989.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/200s.
Fireplace
I wrote - briefly - about the Bestendorf Palace earlier (Bestendorf being the German name of the village [1]). Couple of years ago, a man from Germany got in touch with me - and it turned out he had lived in this palace in the 1940s. He recently visited this area again after decades, and guess what, we went to the same school (but fifty years apart).
ISO 2000, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Washing Machine
Once again, it was thanks to the generosity of Mr. Szałkowski that I was able to visit the palace.
ISO 3200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/45s.
Bright Corridors
He mentioned he had spoken to German architects who several years ago estimated it would cost 4 to 5 million euros to restore the palace.
ISO 320, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/60s.
Terrace
This balcony or terrace inspired a recurring dream I had as a child, of a giant hovercraft in the middle of a huge swamp, me stood alone on top of it on a platform resembling this terrace.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/350s.
Downstairs
At one point, my parents were offered a flat inside the palace - in a smaller building attached to it on its northern side, and very much unlike these grand halls and staircases. We could have lived in a palace! My parents said no, fearing "humidity and rats". And so we did not live in a palace.
ISO 1250, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Into the Garden
The palace and its porch that once led to an elegant garden. We would have inhabited the part obscured by branches on the right hand side. The man I mentioned earlier who lived here in the 1940s lived in the guests' wing seen on the left hand side.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s.
To the Graveyard
Polish culture seems to resemble a death cult to me - so much revolving around the horrors of the Second World War or the grim Communist era. The Shiia festival of Ashura had an almost familiar vibe to me.
ISO 1600, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Morgue
This little building has always fascinated me, as my parents told me it used to be a morgue. The plaque says "petrol storage" and I do not recall it being used for either purpose.
ISO 2000, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/60s.
Johann Friedrich Domhardt
The most prominent person from Dobrocin/Bestendorf must be the Prussian nobleman, Johann Friedrich Domhardt, the first President of East and West Prussia, and apparently a very efficient administrator. He conceived the Masurian Canal project as well as ten children. [2] Although in 1781 he died in Königsberg, he was buried here. I was dismayed to find his excluded from the graveyard area.
ISO 2000, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Daruś
Czarek
I still remember many of our adventures during those "days of wonder".
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Ginger Water
This regions is abundant in lakes, and although the waters seem placid, they regularly claim lives. This is a ribbon lake called Ruda Woda (literally, ginger water), most likely formed by a glacier. [3]
ISO 200, 23mm, f/8.0, 1/900s.
Fence
It's a discreet but chilling reminder of the fragility and temporariness of life how large the graveyard area is in this small village. When I was a kid, I fell into a grave here - in the now neglected and devastated German part of the graveyard.
ISO 320, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Sunset over Dobrocin
The village as seen from above the church hill - you can see the palace (top middle), the ponds, the agricultural school and its stadium (top left), my school (white/red building by the pond above the road, top right).
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/300s.
Fields
When I was 13, they found a murdered woman's body here. It had been decomposing here for weeks, and I'm just glad our dog never found it (we used to come here for a walk).
ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/1700s.
Hunters
From platforms like this one, hunters will shoot animals from above.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.0, 1/105s.
Through the Woods
I wanted to visit the place where I took a sunset photo back in 2013, but it has since become a young jungle. Incidentally, this is the same place where my drone took off in 2016.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/500s.
Viaduct
It seemed that the electricity lines here confused my drone, and it was somewhat unstable, but I managed to snap this photo, and land safely.
ISO 114, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/100s.
Looking West
The view of the village from above the viaduct. One of the four nondescript blocks of flats in the middle is where I used to live with my family.
ISO 100, 4mm, f/2.8, 1/950s.
My Block
And this is my block of flats! With a plot of grass next to it where I once lost my keys, and the whole neighbourhood was helping me to find them.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s.
Backyard
This is behind the block, and the nature is taking over this place.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/1250s.
Staircase
This was my staircase years ago. At one point, a little old woman on the groundfloor died during winter. We began to smell something.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/80s.
Radiator
The heat from the radiator gradually turned her body into jelly, and they had to call an environment hazard squad to get her out. Those boys had a shot of vodka before going in, and then removed what was left of her body in small black bags. For weeks, you could smell lysol and nothing else. It wasn't long before people started joking about it.
ISO 500, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Kindergarten
This is the more recent kindergarten that was built in front of our very eyes in the 90s. It had a mysterious underground section where events would take place. During one of them they brought so much cake covered - to my horror - with mushrooms. So much cake going to waste, I thought. I didn't realise the mushrooms were made of sugar.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/1000s.
Old Kindergarten
Whereas this (on the right) was an old kindergarten where somewhat older kids would (after it was replaced by the new building) smoke smuggled cigarettes, sniff glue, and reputedly have sex.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/640s.
Construction Site
Turning my head further left still, I see what looks like a construction side. That's where a swamp used to be surrounded by tall trees. It's where some of us once found a human skull that later turned out to be a porcelain insulator.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/4.0, 1/1500s.
Stadium
School's stadium. Those goal posts were hopelessly far away for us when we were kids. Once we lost a tennis ball in the tall grasses here (they started trimming them now), and my dog, Sega, located it perfectly within seconds - I'm still proud of her.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/8.0, 1/800s.
Pavement
Towards the Station
Trains still stop here after all those years. We were told the agricultural school was doing reasonably well, perhaps entering a period of prosperity once again, after becoming quite obsolete in the capitalist era.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/8.0, 1/480s.
Dobrocin Station
Potholes
Google Maps, following the letter of the law, rerouted us so we could not take the recently modernised road, and had to take these roads instead. The modernised road used to be so bad years ago it had its own Facebook profile.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/75s.
Wilamowo
This is the church where my parents had me baptised. During this most recent trip, I officially left the Catholic Church.
ISO 640, 23mm, f/2.0, 1/60s.
Morąg
Part of my family lived in an old block like this one for decades. We're in Morąg now, a nearby town.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/280s.
The Path I Used To Take
For nostalgic reasons, I decided to walk the path I used to take to the bus station.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/640s.
Roman Empire
Kościuszki
Autosan H9
I read up on these buses that are still being used here after decades - they supposedly owe their popularity to being able to deal with roads like this one.
ISO 200, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/1250s.
