Bear witness: the white bears of Zakopane – in pictures
Our Streets are Full of White Bears by Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska is an archival project presented by the Belfast photo festival that documents the history of the legendary White Bear of Zakopane, in Poland. It examines how thousands of pictures of people with white bears became part of Polish popular culture
- Our Streets Are Full of White Bears is on display in the grounds of Belfast City Hall until 30 June
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Adam Slowinski, Polish Tatra mountains, 1940s
Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska wanted to explore why people in Poland were so keen to take photos with people in white bear costumes. They made an appeal on social media, radio, TV and in the press for the public to submit their photos. They also searched in libraries and archives -
From Stankowicz album, Zakopane, 1920s
The Stankowicz family owned a workshop in Zakopane’s main street where they made bear costumes from sheepskin -
Czeslawa Slowinska, Polish Tatra mountains, 1950s
The authors received more than 1,500 pictures from all over Poland, and the oldest photos are 100 years old. They were obtained from the descendants of furriers, who were the first to make costumes from sheepskin in Zakopane -
Zofia Tatar, Zakopane, 1967
The contrast between the size of the child and the bear is impressive. The parents wanted to have a souvenir of their visit to Zakopane, the capital of the Polish Carpathians, where the man dressed as the polar bear was most often to be found -
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Władysława Styrczula Maśniak, Zakopane, 1951
In those days, bears sometimes posed for photos in a romantic way -
Adam Slowinski, Polish Tatra mountains, 1940s
It became possible to recognise the era of the photographs by the attire and poses of the people, and even by the bear costumes as the length of the fur and the shape of the head or ears evolved over decades -
Unknown
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Zakopane
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Anna Graca, Stanisław Świder and Zofia Tatar, Zakopane, 1989
It’s the end of communism and the first colour photo films are appearing -
From Stankowicz album, 1920s
People pose with a bear made in their workshop -
Slowinski family, Polish Tatra mountains, 1940s
The Slowinski family were friends with the polar bear because they owned a restaurant at the entrance to the Kościeliska valley where the bear used to wait for customers -
Andrzej Bachleda Żarski, Zakopane, 1950
Young children were often afraid of the polar bear, but here the young boy looks indifferent -