Michal Iwanowski (born 1977) is a Polish photographer and writer currently living in Cardiff, Wales.[1]
In April 2018, Iwanowski travelled on foot 1,900 km (1,200 mi) from Wales to Poland triggered by the message "Go home Polish" written on a wall in the Welsh capital that he saw in 2008.[3] The journey took 105 days to complete as Iwanowski travelled through England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic asking people he met about the concept of home.[4][5] Iwanowski says “The only way for me to find out where home was for me was to walk from my home in Cardiff where I have lived for 17 years, to the home of my birth in Poland, and to ask people along the way: ‘Where is it? Where is home? What does it mean if I tell you to go home?’” [6][7][8]
In 2013 Iwanowski walked 2,200 km (1,400 mi) to trace his grandfather's escape from a Russian gulag.[9] In 1945 Anatol and Wiktor Iwanowski escaped from a prisoner war camp in Kaluga, Russia, and walked over 2,200 km (1,400 mi) to make it back to Poland.[10] As fugitives, they walked only when it was dark and lived on what they could find along the journey. When they reached Wroclaw 90 days later, they were reunited with their families.[11] Iwanowski used a rough map found in his great uncle's diary, and went back to document the route through Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland. His work was compiled in a new book, "Clear of People".[12][13][14]