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A wedding party in a restaurant, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1991. Photograph: Witold Krassowski
Ship builders and snow eaters: forgotten lives in the frame – in pictures
Witold Krassowski has witnessed countries such as India, Afghanistan and his native Poland undergo huge transformations – yet he always kept his camera trained on the lives of ordinary people
All photographs by Witold Krassowski
Snow eater in front of the railway station, Katowice, Poland, 1988
There are many previously unpublished photographs in Witold Krassowski’s latest photobook, depicting everyday lives in Poland, Bulgaria, Tanzania, Peru, Russia, Afghanistan, Italy, Mongolia and more. One of his themes is joy – the festivals, the discos and the catching of snowflakes on the tongue. Sackcloth and Ashes by Witold Krassowski is published by GOST Books. All photographs: Witold Krassowski
Fiesta in Laykakota, a quarter in Puno, Peru, 2008
Krassowski focuses on the lives of common citizens rather than politicians or those in other positions of power
A young patient in the ophthalmology안과 unit of a hospital in Warsaw, Poland, 1986
His black and white photographs, all shot on film, show the universal markers of our lives: births, marriages and deaths. He photographed lumberjacks벌목꾼, miners, tailors and chimney sweeps, and also captured the homeless, sick and imprisoned
The bride and bridesmaid during a wedding celebrations in Fakulteta, a Gypsy district of Sofia, Bulgaria, 1991
Krassowski has often been drawn to little moments of reflection and hope in lives characterised by hardship and struggle, as Tim Adams explains in Sunday’s Big Picture
A wedding party in a restaurant, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1991
The girl standing on the table is being offered as a potential bride, with her parents inviting negotiations on price. The wedding would not take place immediately, but suitors were often found early. Child marriage is still commonplace in Afghanistan, despite being illegal
A worker leaving a ship in construction in Gdansk shipyard, 1990
Krassowski’s best-known images are the ones he took during the transformation of his native Poland following the end of communism in 1989
A bar open all night in the Flower Market, Warsaw, Poland, 1983
In Krassowski’s own words: ‘The projects, from which these images originate, are covered in dust in a few reference libraries. They are dead, and should remain so, as their interest hardly survives the circumstances that originated them. In this book, however, I hope to keep alive a little longer what unites them: my personal approach, a sense of deep unity beyond cultures’
Electoral campaign, Mongolia, 2004
Voters in a small village near Lake Khövsgöl홉스굴 prepare lottery coupons for a draw and try to solve a crossword after a meeting with the opposition leader Lamjavyn Gündalai, during the electoral campaign in 2004
Kabul, Afghanistan, 1991
Life in Kabul under Najibullah. People have climbed a tree to watch a Hindu movie crew filming in the streets
Tel Aviv, Israel, 1992
Krassowski says: ‘It is important to me that the impact of political events can be understood from the point of view of the ordinary people in their ordinary lives. For many of my subjects, their stories would be long forgotten’
Warsaw, Poland, 1990
Romanian Gypsies set up home in the Warsaw East railway station, on their way to the westNgara, Tanzania, 1994
A tailor in the Rusumo refugee camp, working on a sewing machine transported from Rwanda on a bike
Campaign trail, Poland, 1995
Presidential hopeful Aleksander Kwaśniewski distributes small calendars bearing his picture among voters in Gródki during his campaign trail