Deserted village

  • Dates
    2015 - 2018
  • Author
  • Topics Landscape, Fine Art
  • Location Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland

I grew up with this animals. Most of them are no longer alive and I wanted to tell their stories. Some of them I actually photographed on our farm in places where they stuck. The rest was reassembled from my old, family photograph album.

And yet this lack of cows, however rational it may be, gives one the feeling that the fields and meadows, deprived of their phlegmatic, bemusedly ruminating presence, are pitifully empty.

Stanislaw Lem’s THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS – a sci-fi novel from 1971

„Deserted village” is a story about animals that are no longer natural in the nature, are becoming less and less common in the countryside and do not have their future in our cities. Their fates show the transformation that takes place on our farm, in the whole village and in our minds.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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Broken Bridge – Betty the cow (03.2011 - 02.2017) She was born in our stable. At first every attempt to get her out turned into a panicky kicking and a forced march. She was afraid of leaves, wind, birds. Her first delivery was very hard. The vet said that she would not be able to have more calves. This meant that Betty will have less and less milk. After 2 years she developed udder infection and completely lost milk. Nothing can go to waste on a farm. Betty was killed for meat. The grandparents decided that she was their last cow.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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A Tree Falls the Way It Leans – Merry the goat (02.2008 - 11.2014) Goats have a temper. Merry was a scamp. One tragic day she wrapped her chain around a tree and suffocated.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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The Flood - Lolek the pig (06. 2017 - 12. 2017) Pigs learn fast. Lolek was a fondling. Every morning at the sight of a man entering the stable, he laid down on his back, began to choke and expected that his belly will be stroked with a broom. In the heat, he demanded to be poured with a cold water. In 6 months Lolek had grown from 5 to 110 kg. He was killed in December, as a meat for Christmas.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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Early bird – Bono the cockerel (2009 - 06.2013) Bono was always a first animal that wake up on our farm. With sunrise the cockerel scrambled on the top of the barn to began a day with loud and hoarse „cock-a-doodle-doo”. One day his crowing was brutally ceased. A hawk struck from the sky, seized Bono and carried him into the dark forest.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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Stairs Queen (02.2013 – 11.2016) Fable (03.2017 – 10.2017) Blacky (02.2014 – ) Teddybeargirl (03.2015 – ) Crazygirl (03.2014 – ) Theo (03.2017 – 10.2017) Blackhead (02.2017 – 10.2017) There is not many other animals as productive as sheep. They give us wool, milk, meat. Their memoirs are usually short. The pool of names is repeated every 2 years in our case. We already had 2 Queens, 3 Theos, 4 Fables...

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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Tannery – Elvis the donkey (06.1999 – 01.2014) Elvis was a donkey of our neighbours. Like his owners, Elvis wasn't young. When his host suddenly died, no one wanted to deal with him. It was impossible to work with this stubborn animal. Nobody wanted to buy him. Elvis lost his skin in a local tannery.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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Stray Dog – Sonia the bitch (05.2014 –) She has been with us for 3 years. She followed our mom. Little and hungry, she wandered along the road near our farm. She spent her entire life in a human home until one day someone threw her out. Sonia never goes too far away from our farm.

© Adam Żądło - Image from the Deserted village photography project
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28 Horsepower – Russell the horse (05.2003–) My grandfather always had a horse. When Sable died (03.1988 - 04.2007) the former duties disappeared and the whole rhythm of the day changed. Sable was replaced by Ursus – a tractor. Not only on our farm. So far I managed to find 4 draft horses in entire village (5 000 population).

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