Documentary Photography · Poland · 2015
Life of Others
10 portraits. 10 rescue workers. Mountains, lakes, open water.
GOPR · WOPR · MOPR
Mountain. Lake. Sea. Three services. One question.
People First
This is not a project about rescue operations. It is a project about the people who build a life around them.
In 2015, Jakub Górnicki spent two months traveling across Poland - into mountains, to lakeshores, along the Baltic coast - embedded with rescue teams from GOPR, WOPR, and MOPR. He slept in their stations. Sat in their briefings. Went out with them in bad weather. Came back with 10 long-form portrait interviews, 6 reported essays on the demands of each service, and over 60 photographs.
The question driving the project was simple: what kind of person chooses a life structured entirely around other people's emergencies?
"Who else would drag themselves out of a warm bed at 2 in the morning, in rain, and race to help someone?"
Tomek Kurowicki - MOPR Rescuer
The Work
62 photographs. Outdoor exhibition, Łazienki Królewskie, Warsaw. October 2015.
"We looked like people made of glass."
Kalina Pustelnik - GOPR Rescuer, on winter mountain rescue operations
What They Said About Gratitude
Across almost every interview, the same observation surfaced. Most people whose lives are saved by rescue workers never say thank you. The rescuers noted this without anger. Some had stopped expecting it. A few said they had learned to find satisfaction elsewhere - in the operation itself, in the competence of the team, in the face of a person the moment they realize help has arrived.
One MOPR rescuer described pulling a family of four out of rough water. The parents had no life jackets. He got the children out first. The younger one gripped his neck and would not let go.
"For moments like that," he said, "it's worth living and doing this work."
From the Interviews
"The greatest satisfaction is when someone comes back and says thank you. Just - thank you. For me, that is something magnificent. I could go without the pay after that."
Tomek Kurowicki, MOPR
Outdoor Exhibition · 2015
Łazienki Królewskie
Warsaw
62 photographs from the project were shown as an outdoor exhibition at the Royal Baths in Warsaw, opening October 16, 2015. The exhibition ran in the park's open-air gallery, bringing the project out of the digital space and into public view.
"There was no project before this one where I felt that kind of emotional weight. I never used to think about whether I could do what they do. After this - I think about it often."
Jakub Górnicki
Concluded Project · 2015
Life of Others
10 interviews. 62 photographs. Outdoor exhibition at Łazienki Królewskie, Warsaw.