Controversy has erupted over an erotic photo shoot in the abandoned 17th century Jewish cemetery in Chęciny, in south-central Poland.
Photos published on the echodnia.eu web site show a blonde model in a black bra and panties posing amid the overgrown gravestones. One photo,shows her with spread legs, naked breasts and wearing a cross, leaning against a matzeva.
The photographer was Łukasz Szczygielski, whom Virtual Shtetl described as “a Kielce-based photographer who specializes in wedding photography” who took the pictures in July. He posted pictures from the shoot on Facebook and was also interviewed on local Polish TV in Kielce. Virtual Shtetl writes that in that interview
Szczygielski said that during this erotic photo session over graves, his intention was to draw attention of the public to the forgotten Jewish cemetery.
He told the local edition of Gazet Wyborcza that it was not a porn shoot, and that he apologized to anyone he might have offended.
The photographs have nonetheless provoked outrage.
Bogdan Bialek, president of the Jan Karski society in Kielce, called the photos an “insult” to the burial place. “Someone ran out of good taste and sensitivity,” he told Gazeta.
Piotr Kadlcik, president of the Untion of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, told Gazeta, My feelings are that a Catholic would feel if the followers of other religions who have discovered that the cemetery at the grave of someone close to them, any model posed nude.
Read full article in Gazeta, with more quotes from Szczygielski
The Jewish cemetery in Chęciny dates back to the 17th century. Located on a hillside, it includes about 100-150 gravestones and is quite overgrown.
Graveyards in general have been a popular setting for photographers over the last years. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to respect such a place. Two years ago, a picture taken in a Jewish cemetery in Kielce appeared on the Internet. The photograph showed a model posing as a women giving birth, covered in blood. Personal data of the photographer and the model remain unknown. Another women, aged twenty-six, was less fortunate though. She posed naked in one of Christian cemeteries in Bielsko-Biała in 2011. She was captured by the police who charged her with defacing a burial site. Under the Polish Criminal Code, such an offense is punished with up to two years of imprisonment.
The web site of the Union of Polish Jewish Communities also notes that “offending religious feelings under Polish law can result in a fine, restriction of liberty or imprisonment up to two years.”