Americanization in Poland

These days in Poland we can notice that the process of Americanization has proceeded. Every step we take, we face the influence of the American culture in our country and it does not surprise anybody or we do not even surmise that we take part in this phenomenon.

Firstly, I have noticed that more than 90% of the music I listen to is in English. Even if the bands come from Sweden or Hungary the lyrics of their songs are still in English, usually in American English. Some people say that it overshadows Polish music a bit but it also makes us study the language to understand foreign lyrics. What is more, most of the movies I watch are American. They are from Hollywood and the cast of each movie is also American. It makes our national movies look a bit poorer than these from the USA but we have to admit that some of the American motion pictures are astonishing.

However, really bad tendency is that we eat more and more junk food. Fast-foods are tasty but really unhealthy, full of carbohydrates and fats which in too big amounts can be dangerous for our lives.

All in all, the phenomenon of Americanization is present in Poland. Its’ influence on our culture is huge but we can not define it as unequivocally good or unequivocally bad. It has a lot of good aspects but also many disadvantages.

Tomasz Tomaszewski photo exhibition “Rzut beretem”

Every young person who likes photography should visit the photo exhibition of Tomasz Tomaszewski called “Rzut beretem” which can be seen in CK Zamek in Poznań from the 6th to the 26th of February, 2009. It is the summary of all the photographer’s work that he did in 2008 when he was traveling around Poland.

As soon as we enter the hall of CK Zamek, we can notice that all the photographs are black and white. That discoloration was done deliberately to make the photos look more amazing and to present the topic of the exhibition as best as possible. All of the 60 most interesting photographer’s pictures show the forgotten places in Poland such as old villages, homesteads, etc. It refers to the name of the exhibition, which means that the places shown on the pictures seem to people who live in the city to be far away from them but the truth is that they are nearby being undiscovered and underestimated.

Photographs presented on the exhibition are of incredibly high quality, the contrast is also high and the frames are considered, they were not made accidentally but to present the photographer’s point of view.

I recommend this exhibition to every young people interested in photography. “Rzut beretem” is worth seeing it to discover the forgotten and underestimated places in Poland.