Salix Polaris – book presentation
The Salix Polaris book came to being as the effect of a journey I made with Polish scientists to the Polish Polar Station, Hornsund on Spitsbergen (August/September 2012). The photographs taken there resulted from meeting people, whose lives are inseparably connected with science and nature. The title polar willow (Salix Polaris) is a small shrub only a few centimetres high. Its form resembles human nervous or circulatory system. It is strong, wind and frost resistant, and its fresh sprouts develop also under snow. The willow is defined by dendrologists, who can tell its age by the number of growth rings and read its past, as they use a microscope to examine the scares in the rings. To me, the polar willow has become a symbol of explorer’s determination. The project attempts also to analyse the mutual relations between art and science.
This is not a typical album of photographs from the trip. This hypnotic story about the confrontation with nature and other people. And above all, a story about the struggle with himself.
Photos © Anka Sielska
Poetic texts © Grzegorz Olszański
Concept and edition Michał Łuczak
Graphic design Roman Kaczmarczyk
Scientific texts developed © by Krzysztof Senderak, Piotr Owczarek PhD, Agnieszka Piechota PhD
Translation © into English Alicja Gorgoń
