Today marked the 45th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The attempt was to liberate the Polish capital from German control before the arrival of the Soviet army. A liberated Warsaw was to demonstrate sovereignty in order to withstand the Allied devision of Eastern Europe. The uprising was expected not to last longer then a week, lasted for 63 days with a quarter of million lives lost.

To coincide with the anniversary of the uprising the exhibition Miasto Feniksa – War*Saw Everything is on view at Krakowskie Przedmiescie 64 for all of August. The exhibition contains 28 photographs that are montages of images from the Warsaw Uprising with images taken from the same viewpoint of present day Warsaw. A thoughtful project, but I have to admit after seeing the exhibition the end result is somewhat poorly executed. Snowy streets from 1945 combined with heels and miniskirts form 2008 doesn’t really seem to fit well together.

The image above, of downtown Warsaw was originally taken between January 19th and 21st 1945. While in the background most of today’s postwar downtown cityscape.

Links:
 + Miasto Feniksa – War*Saw Everything (the exhibition)
 + Warsaw Uprising (an overview)
 + Palac Kultury (about the tallest building in the photograph)