The „Generation” book (
Generacja) pictures the Warsaw punk and reggae scene in the mid-1980s. The album includes 160 photographs of Michał Wasążnik who closely portrayed the bands and their fans: at the stage, in backstage, on route, during parties, on the street of socialist Poland. Pictures are accompanied with a text composed by Robert Jarosz from the statements of the music scene members and short introductions to the political and cultural events in the counter-culture, as well as socio-political situation of the Polish People’s Republic.
The book gives voice to musicians like Robert Brylewski (bands Brygada Kryzys, Izrael, Armia), Tomasz Lipiński (Brygada Kryzys, Tilt) or Paweł „Kelner” Rozwadowski (Deuter, Izrael), but also Paweł „Konjo” Konnak from the Gdansk artistic group TotArt or the organizer of the Jarocin festival Walter Chełstowski. Jarosz also managed to reach former authorities like Jerzy Urban (press secretary of Polish government in 1981-1989) or Aleksander Kwaśniewski (back then a Minister for Youth and an editor the youth magazine Sztandar Młodych, later a president of Poland).
Ha! Art., the publishing house form Krakow, describes the project in a following way: „« Generation» (…) presents a new imaginarium of the Polish popular culture in the 1980s (…) The new pantheon clears the field of culture from the mastodons like bands Perfect, Lombard, TSA, Turbo etc. [mainstream rock groups of the 1980s.].”
In the book one can also find a timeline of the most important events of the 1980s which influenced the punk scene, as well as detailed description of photographs. Jarosz’s text is included both in Polish and English version.