These tender portraits celebrate Poland’s Black immigrants

As a young Polish photographer, Piotr Włochyń has long been confronted by the country’s problematic relationship with immigration and race. In a conversation with Dazed, he recalls the fear-mongering anti-migration headlines that accompanied the election campaign of the now-president, Karol Nawrocki, and the strong disputes in neighbourhoods where many refugees from Ukraine and young people from Africa, South America, and Asia have moved to. “Anti-immigrant perspectives in Poland are everywhere, but especially during the election, when several articles and opinions pop up about illegal immigrants and keeping Poland Polish,” Włochyń shares, noting how many news stories were defending the Polish-German border using depictions of dark skin skinned people who were allegedly going through the border illegally. 

In his photography series, aptly titled Here To Stay, Włochyń challenges this depiction of immigrants, specifically young Black men, by positioning them as positively altering Poland’s cultural and social life. “I wanted to take photographs of immigrants from Africa or South America and focus on their experience because of how visible their otherness is in a country like Poland. If you’re a white immigrant, unless you speak and reveal that you are not Polish, you cannot be vilified,” Włochyń explains. “I wanted to ask what it means to be a Black young man in Poland, when skin colour becomes a matter of political tension. I hope these photographs contrast with how politicians want people to see them, portraying instead how beautiful and tender these boys are.” 

The images in the series were shot between the studio and the streets, a decision made by the photographer after he had shot the initial round of photographs in a studio, where he felt the setting was too sparse for the vision he wanted to achieve. "I decided to continue the project outside to make the images a little less sterile and add another dimension to the photographs by positioning them in and around the city,” he shares. Inside the studio, the photographs are stripped back, allowing the focus to fall entirely on the subjects and their affective gaze towards the camera. 

Out on the streets of Warsaw, the project assumes a different mood. The young men lean against spray-painted trucks, sit together on park benches, or walk casually through public spaces. These settings ground them firmly within the fabric of Poland’s everyday life, placing them at the heart of the city. Here on the streets, the models interacted with each other, sharing gestures of familiarity, making visible the community they have fostered in a place away from home. One monochromatic photograph shows two young men sitting side by side on a park bench, their bodies almost touching but angled away from each other. In another, the image of one man facing the other while holding his shoulder is purposely out of focus, as if caught mid-motion. In both photographs, their proximity suggests familiarity, even tenderness: the closeness of friends, brothers and confidants sharing space in a city that may not always make room for them.

Despite Włochyń’s background in fashion photography, he intentionally resisted overstyling the models; instead, he encouraged them to bring their favourite pieces of clothing, which the stylist then worked with to create outfits that reflected their own personal style. One of the models, Chika Dayo Libuku, shared how the freedom to pose, dress, and express himself as he wanted tied in perfectly with this project, “I was able to show that I am here to stay in my purest form. I believe we hide our authentic selves away from public life because of the fear of judgment, which is why I try to showcase myself in the media whenever I can, so that I can be the representation other people need to break out of their shell.” 

Włochyń’s vision is aligned with Libuku’s perception of Poland's changing multicultural reality. He explains, “I think that Poland is changing, but no one wants to talk about it. Many young immigrants are now an integral part of the country’s cultural life and have lives and realities that involve friendships, work, and relationships that root them in Poland. However, they are often treated as mute bodies whose presence in this country is temporary. This is why I wanted to name the project Here To Stay, to reaffirm that they are not fleeting, but a permanent part of Poland.”