Violence begins in the nervous system, from an impulse that runs through the body and pushes someone to press the shutter. It ends in an archive, the place where information and images are stored. This base reveals who interprets the collected data, and therefore - who controls the facts. The book also tells the story of spies, agents, guards, AI algorithm programmers, surveillance subjects, suspects, archivists, convicts and passers-by photographed by chance. They interact on different levels, all constituting a huge machine, disproportionate and dispersed.
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\nAll the photographs in the book come from the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (IPN), which investigates the history of Poland from the beginning of the 20th century to the fall of the totalitarian system. The book contains descriptions of the photographs based on archival notes, as well as an essay by Tomasz Stempowski, historian and archivist.
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\n How to Look Natural in Photos is a book about a totalitarian system that uses photography for its own ends. It includes reflections on the mechanism and relationships between looking and photographing, observing and being observed, describing and being described.
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