Jacek Wajszczak is a Ph.D. student in Culture Studies at Warsaw University, and a graduate of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Culture at the Warsaw University. His doctoral thesis examines the practice of drawing in classical and contemporary ethnographic research. He is also interested in bottom-up cultural practices, the anthropology of art, and socially involved research, and he seeks to combine classical methods of ethnographic research with artistic activities.

“The drawings presented here are sketches from my research about local heritage in Lelow in southern Poland. Lelow is a small village in crisis after extended economic transformation: I am interested in the little social practices that help people to make sense of this transformation.

Regarding drawing in ethnology: I find drawing helps me back into my fieldwork, it refreshes situations and helps me to analyse them as well. I find that the value of the drawing is not in its realism, but rather as a spontaneous and openminded form. So let’s do a raw draw!”