Each of us has a soul of an artist which means that we are sensitive to beauty which we would like to preserve in some way and share with others. Scientists are no exception here despite the fact they use emotionless means of expression in their dissertations. A scientific photograph is to be an accurate copy which preserves a subject of studies in an objective and unemotional way and its value should be cognitive only not artistic. Nevertheless many scientists have an emotional attitude to their researches and they perceive the subjects as something more than a thing which should be meticulously measured, examined and described (without going into raptures unnecessarily). A challenge for a scientist with a soul of an artist is to see people, objects and phenomena not as they are but as they seem to be evoking unexpected associations. The challenge means bringing out their often hidden beauty and giving it the value of a discovery. The photographs presented at the competition ‘Silesia in a scientist’s eyes’ required from their Authors something more than just technical skills to use a photo camera. They appeal to us with their artistic form and we perceive them more as impressions and visions of artists than documentation of scientific researches.
Silesia seen by scientists-humanists and naturalists does not fit in with its stereotypical conception. In the presented photographs we will not find such seemingly indispensable attributes of the region as hoist towers, slag heaps or smoking chimneys. If we can see a fragment of a workers’ estate it is only background for people. And again these people are not industrial workers but children and beautiful women. With (young) scientists’ eyes we admire landscapes, nature and people, things which often escape our attention in everyday haste. It is Silesia we do not expect, discovered for us by enquiring scientists granted with a talent and peculiar sensitiveness.

Janusz Janeczek
Rector of University of Silesia in Katowice