This unique album features 200 photographs taken before World War II by Roman Reinfuss, a renowned ethnographer and authority on folk culture. Fascinated by the Carpathian ethnic groups of the Boykos and Lemkos, for years he documented their rich traditions while travelling extensively in what was then the Polish part of the Carpathian Mountains. The main focus of his field work were the everyday lives, customs and culture of the Subcarpathia highlanders.

These photographs present a priceless documentary value and have been a subject of ethnographic and anthropological study as well as being presented at a number of museum exhibitions. Reinfuss’ approach to the highlanders’ world consisted in regarding their contemporary reality as a historic „relic”. He focused his particular attention on those who cultivated their ancient traditions in customs, attire, architecture – he had taken numerous pictures of traditional houses, churches, wayside shrines, cemeteries, mills, etc.

This book is a magnificent evidence of the researcher’s work who had suceeded in exploring the very core of the Boyko and Lemko culture. Beside the photographs the album also contains an impressive  collection of original archival sources. The complete Reinfuss iconographic estate is deposited at the Museum of Folk Architecture (Muzeum Budownictwa Ludowego) in Sanok who co-authored this album constituting an intriguing publication for Readers interested in ethnography and Carpathian folk culture. The album was co-financed by Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.