Through the Witness’s Emotional Eyes: Bruno Barbey’s Portrait of Poland

Abstract

The enforcement of martial law in Poland in December 1981, a major setback to the policy of détente, contributed to a cooling of international diplomacy and triggered a second phase in the Cold War. This analysis of the photo book Pologne by Magnum photographer Bruno Barbey, published in 1982, shows how the photo book commented on the political situation in Poland and gave a vivid testimony from major protagonists in the field. This article argues that the book was not merely a ‘documentary’, but also dared to offer a transnational response to the events of the day and, as such, reflected wider French sympathy for the aims and requests of Polish citizens, as seen by a French photographer. Moreover, Barbey attempted to introduce Polish history in general, and Poland’s burdened relationship to the Soviet Union in particular, in order to suggest that it belonged to the history of Western democratic states across the Iron Curtain.