Piotr Malecki

Photographer and Filmmaker

www.piotrmalecki.com

School, Virtually

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Location: Warsaw (Poland)

Nationality: Polish

Biography: Photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Piotr finished documentary film-making at the Wajda Film School in Warsaw, studied cinematography at the Silesian University in Katowice and photography at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art in... MORE

"We are very tired after a whole day. I am surprised if I remember a lesson without repeating it. Because at school, information is associated with something, and at home it is associated with nothing and I forget very quickly. I have to repeat everything to myself, I have to take careful notes, read the textbook and only then is the knowledge full."

Nela, 17 years old high school student.

Kasia: "I have such a friend, every time he spoke during online class, there was such a cool jazz, really cool jazz playing in the background. Such a cafe feeling, so nice. And finally one of the teachers asked what the performer was, I wrote it down .. It was Miles Davies. And now I associate this friend of mine with this music. I don't even know what he looks like, but I feel that I like him."

Maciek: "Instead of sitting in school, I can skip some lessons all the time because I know they are being recorded. And then in the evening I am able to come back to them. So I have more free time. My friend and I sold 150 bikes and for the money we earned we went to France for 2 weeks to the glacier. I can choose the time when I want to deal with school. I am going to the Beskidy mountains, skateboarding, even though I will have an algebra test. I'll be writing this exam in the room I'm renting there and it will be just the same."

Kasia, 19 years old architecture student, at home of her boyfriend Maciek, 20, student of Warsaw Polytechnic.

"It is easier for me to focus on online classes, because it is quieter in the class, no one talks during lessons. In normal school, you can meet your friends during breaks. We played tag, for example. Now we play on the computer with my friends."

Mateusz, 12 years old primary school student.

"I have my alarm clock set at 7.58, at eight to school, and I sit in front of the computer for eight hours. And then I have extracurricular activities. So I sit three-quarters of a day in this position. I have absolutely no contact with classmates. Even when it was recently signing high school diploma certificates in my school, I came and didn't recognize these faces, as if they were completely foreign."

Julia, 19 years old high school student.

"These remote classes are as if each was put into a separate drawer. We had so recently that during the classes the lecturer lost the connection and we were left alone. Someone laughed. And suddenly this stiff form was broken and we started talking to each other like people to people. We freed ourselves for a moment"

Ignacy, 21 years old, Polish student of Warsaw University

"I feel a bit lonely. But lately, my friend and I have been drinking coffee together at FaceTime. To sort of see each other. I see my boyfriend a lot, live. It's good that he has a car, because we can even drive ourselves stupidly with a car aimlessly. At home, I am less motivated because I am wearing sweatpants, or when I am tired, I am in bed. So I thought about going to the library together with my friend and studying there together. But not now. It's too cold outside now."

Maja, 18 years old high school student.

"There's zero motivation, everybody cuts corners, so why not cheat? And when the teacher says that he will be checking our knowledge today, students tell him that they do not have a microphone. Teachers are often powerless except for the computer science teacher who doesn't get fooled so easily"

Jeremi, 16 years old high school student.

"Fatigue and frustration build up. I have cut myself off from social media because it pulls me down. I remember reading what was happening and I couldn't stand it; no matter if it was at night or in the middle of the day, I put on my boots and a jacket and walked into the middle of the forest to let the steam off. If the epidemic ended, I would go to the Vistula river with my friends. We would take some good wine or beer with us, and I would like it to be summer, and so we would sit until we don't know what time it is."

Kasia, 20 years old, student of Anthrozoology.

"Before, I didn't have time to think so much. I have the impression that the more you think, the more unhappy you are. I got used to it. As I talked with friends; I think they lost contact with people, they don't even need it anymore."

Jagoda, 19 years old high school student.

"I have a very feeling that every day is the same. I get up, turn on the computer, do something on it, turn it off at 7 p.m. and that's the end of the day. There are no experiences to remember because nothing is happening. There are different human relationships. Awfully shallow. These are only for the need for this connection, and then when I click "end meeting", I have the impression that nothing is left of it."

Lukasz, 19 years old, student of London School of Economics.

"Family relations have worsened, everyone is nervous, it's easy to quarrel. During the online lessons, one of my friends exclaimed irritably to someone at home, "I still have lessons, I'm going to this lunch soon. And the art history master, such a senior professor, replied that he relieved her of the obligation to be in class, that she could go to lunch, She said she was very sorry, she didn't know she had the microphone on, and she would survive until the end of the lesson."

Jedrzej, 19 years old high school student

"There are no practical classes, classes with patients. Normally I have contact with the patient, I prepare my heart, my head for contact with a sick person who suffers. That is why I chose this direction, however grossly it may sound. We feel left to ourselves."

Marcin, 23 years old Polish student of medicine.

„When you are at school, you are more motivated to learn. But in itself it is quite nice to be learning online. I am not missing anything really. The webcams are turned off during lessons, so we can easily pass information to each other during tests, via messenger groups and phones..”

Wojtek, 15 years old Polish high school student.

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Public Story

School, Virtually

Copyright Piotr Malecki 2024

Updated Feb 2021

Location London

Topics Art, Borders, brexit, Civil Rights, Community, Conceptual, Confrontation, Documentary, Education, Essays, Feature, Human Rights, Immigration, Migration, Minority, Photography, Photojournalism, Politics, Portraiture, Street

This is a story about the young people, confined to their rooms for almost a year since their lessons went online.

Photographer visited them at home during school time. He asked them to share their experience.