Niewybuch
In Poland, military-run summer camps for young people are becoming increasingly popular. For children, it is a chance to experience adventure, make friends and play soldier, but at the same time they are playfully indoctrinated into obedience and patriotism. Natalia Kepesz spent a considerable time at such a youth camp and documented the children simulating modern warfare.
With the series ‘Niewybuch’, she captures a dark undercurrent: the young soldiers in her photographs look like wax figures, their frozen features concealing every emotion. The feeling of unease is reinforced for those who know the long history of veneration of child soldiers in Poland: in Warsaw, a statue was erected for the children who fought in 1944. ‘Niewybuch’ questions the emotional effects of a military upbringing and exposes the tension between the childish thirst for adventure and the excesses of the Polish military cult.
