I grew up in a small village in Poland during the transformative years following the fall of communism and the dawn of democracy. Our family nearly lost everything during WWII.
When I was a kid, nobody had much money to go out. Our social life happened at a house or while working on the farm, or on a street outside your home. No internet or phones, just a close-knit community. I had a second-hand piano accordion and together with B, my childhood friend, we would play to anyone who was passing by. We loved playing together, our performances became an outlet, a joy, a shared bond. But when B tragically died in a car accident at 18, the world felt different. My image, Balancing Act (below), is a tribute to him.
As a child I made a quiet promise to myself to learn foreign languages, leave my village one day and explore the world. I scribbled it into my journal—a dream that felt wild, maybe even impossible. The world I grew up in was the world where men played cards, women cooked food and children listened to stories about the war, memories blurred by the thick haze of cigarette smoke. I often wish I had a camera back then, to capture those moments when hidden behind the bed, my eyes were wide open from fear and excitement of stories being told, of stories of war relived once more.
Aldona Kmieć is a Polish-born photographer previously based in Ballarat and now Melbourne. Raised on a farm in communist-era Poland, Aldona’s work explores memory and identity. Often combining photography with elements such as sound, text and physical objects, Aldona’s site-specific installations tell stories about our regional communities and celebrate the magic of childhood in her Australian landscapes.
With an interest in documentary photography, Aldona was commissioned by the State Library of Victoria to take part in a multi-story project titled Focus on Country, 2020 and again in 2022. A social history of Victoria, these images capture ordinary moments in extraordinary times, as regional communities still reeling from devastating droughts and bushfires faced the new challenge of a global pandemic.
Aldona has exhibited extensively; her photography is held in public and private collections. She has been the recipient of a number of prizes, including City of Melbourne Arts Grant (2025), finalist Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (2024), CLIP Award Perth Centre of Photography (2024), Michael Beazer Works on Paper (2024), finalist William and Winifred Bowness Prize at Museum of Australian Photography (2014), and Under the Floorboards art residency award (2012).