Września Collection

Extraordinary City: 15 Years of the Września Collection

Września is a small town with a population of just over 30,000, located in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, 50 km east of Poznań. Since the early 20th century, it has gained wider recognition in Poland due to the Września Children's Strike. In later years, it became known for the Tonsil loudspeaker factory. The town is situated on an important transportation route, and many factories operate actively in the municipality. In short, Września is not a particularly distinctive place on the country’s map; rather, it is an "Ordinary City," as Wojciech Wilczyk, the author of the latest edition of the Września Collection, has named it, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. The authors of the Września Collection, through the fifteen photographic books published so far, containing 1,225 photographs, have given us the keys to an extraordinary city. Here, the present mingles with the past, reality with fiction, and the obvious with the surprising. Each of these works offers an individual, authorial perspective on the city, allowing it to be discovered in continually new contexts. Together, they create an engaging, multi-layered narrative about a city that, although small, has many faces. One also cannot shake the feeling that as more projects emerge, more stories are yet to be discovered. Despite being 15 years in the making, the Września Collection remains the only project of its kind in Poland. It is tangible proof of how flexible and useful photography is as a medium for documenting a city and its community. It is a model worth emulating because every city has its own extraordinary face, which is worth discovering and preserving for future generations.

Karol Szymkowiak – curator of the exhibition and the Września Collection

Artists

Bogdan Konopka, Andrzej Jerzy Lech, Mariusz Forecki, Nicolas Grospierre, Zbigniew Tomaszczuk, Katarzyna Majak, Adam Lach, Rafał Milach, Filip Springer, Zuza Krajewska, Chris Niedenthal, Tadeusz Rolke, Maksymilian Rigamonti, Maciej Jeziorek, Karolina Jonderko, Wojciech Wilczyk

The Września Collection

The Września Collection is a long-term photographic project that results in an artistic photographic archive of the Town and Municipality of Września. Each year, the Mayor of Września invites a photographer selected by the curator for an artistic residency. The artist’s task is to create a personal set of photographs that illustrates the municipality and its residents. The artist is given complete creative freedom regarding both the subjects addressed and the ways of presenting them. The results of their work are published in the form of an artistic photographic book and displayed in an exhibition in Września. Through the Września Collection, the residents of the Town and Municipality of Września have the opportunity to view themselves and the space they live in from the perspective of an external observer. This "external eye" provides them a chance to learn something new about the people, places, and phenomena that are so close to them but often escape their attention in daily life. The Września Collection is also directed "outward," beyond the town in which it is created. Września thus becomes a kind of universal city through which the photographer tells stories with a much broader context, extending beyond but derived from the place of execution. In the future, this collection of photographs will serve as an invaluable testimony to our times. Today, the collection aims to explore, provoke reflection, and raise questions.

Karol Szymkowiak

Photographer and cultural animator, curator of the Września Collection. Member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers. A scholarship recipient from the Marshal of the Greater Poland Voivodeship in the field of culture (2023). Lecturer in photography at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences. From 2016 to 2019, member and vice-president of the Fotspot Association. From 2011 to 2015, member of the Września Photodialog Group, and co-organizer of the Photodialog Festival. He specializes in documentary photography. Participated in numerous group exhibitions. Winner of awards and honors in photography. Author of several series, including: 0169-8629 5223-01750 (2024), C'è Sempre un Tango (2018), and Nieruchomi podróżnicy (2013).

Authors of the photos

Wojciech Wilczyk, Rafał Milach, Zuza Krajewska, Adam Lach

Exhibition Availability

UwB campus, Ciołkowskiego 1M St., Exhibition available: 26.09-13.10.2024, Mon-Fri 14:00-18:00, free admission.