City. Folk a hundred times

“I would like you to take pictures of my group in ways that nobody has ever photographed folklore before”. These words of Danuta Grydź, the head of Children and Youth Dance Ensemble “Sto uśmiechów” (“One Hundred Smiles”), served as an inspiration for the creation of a collection of portraits.
Twenty black-and-white portraits in the urban landscape of Vilnius blur the line between the place and the outfit, as well as the dancer himself, highlighting only the beauty of a young man and his passion - dance. Portraits of dancers wearing Polish and Lithuanian regional historical costumes, as well as folk outfits, constitute also a manifestation of the multidimensionality of fascinating cultural heritage of both Poland and Lithuania. By presenting his photographs under the title “City. Folk a hundred times” Bartosz Frątczak proves that human being is of most significance when it comes to folklore, and in today's world, folklore itself is not perceived as coarse and dull, but quite the opposite.

The exhibition was shown at the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius on 25 November 2019.