{"id":75474,"date":"2025-04-25T12:40:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T10:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=75474"},"modified":"2026-09-26T13:22:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:22:19","slug":"milk-churn-meets-mixing-desk","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/work\/milk-churn-meets-mixing-desk\/","title":{"rendered":"Milk churn meets mixing desk: new beginnings in Poland\u2019s Podlasie"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\r\n Milk churn meets mixing desk: new beginnings in Poland\u2019s Podlasie <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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Few places in Poland are as sparsely populated as Podlasie. While many people leave, some are building something of their own here \u2013 out of conviction and family ties.
\nBy Jelko Wronski<\/a> (text), Pasha Kritchko<\/a> (photos)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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Maria passes freshly baked yeast pastries<\/strong> across the table. It\u2019s Easter Sunday, and the family has gathered for breakfast. At the table sits Pasha Kritchko, a photographer and student in the international class in Hannover. He arrived in their remote village the evening before \u2013 late, exhausted, but welcome. Easter breakfast is more than a meal: it\u2019s a ritual, a memory, a quiet sign of belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A few villages away, Dorotheus Fionik and his two sons are preparing a spring ritual. Later there will be music, food and conversation. Elias, the younger son, will be there too \u2013 when he isn\u2019t sitting in his makeshift studio in Bielsk, blending traditional dialects with new beats. He can afford to do so thanks to his side job in a kebab shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Podlasie stretches across the north-eastern tip of Poland, on the border with Lithuania and Belarus. Around 300,000 people live in its capital, Bia\u0142ystok \u2013 a good quarter of the province\u2019s entire population. Beyond the city, large parts of the region are almost deserted. Hardly anywhere else in Poland is so sparsely populated. Unfinished building sites and abandoned car parks tell of a region that is slowly falling silent.

For young people, life here often means choosing between two options: either doing hard work into old age or risking everything to follow their dreams. Pasha Kritchko travelled through Podlasie and reports on encounters with people who get on with their daily lives despite adverse circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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