The Galicia Jewish Museum celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and the presence of Chris Schwartz - the museum's co-founder and first director - is still being felt. Schwartz (1948-2007) was born in London to a Polish Jewish father and British Christian mother, and discovered his passions for photography, travel and social issues early in life. Schwartz made many trips to Poland, and from the early 1990s began documenting remnants of Jewish heritage and reviving culture in Poland; his photographs from that period form the core of the Galicia Museum's permanent exhibit.
His first visit to Poland took place in May 1981, however, and the images he captured then reveal the reality of life in a communist state wrought with tension and contrast. Months earlier the Solidarity movement had begun, and only months later martial law would be declared and tanks would prowl the streets. During his brief stay he primarily found himself in Warsaw, Lublin and the small towns in between. He photographed endless queues, policemen on the streets, people praying, and farmers resting after work, and empty store shelves juxtaposed with bazaars full of black market goods. The small collection of images from that trip were never published, but remained in Schwartz's archive until now.
