This article originally appeared on VICE Poland.There are currently 9.5 million Poles living in the United States, and many of them have their roots in the beautiful, but historically poorer, mountain region of Podhale. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, a number of Polish highlanders emigrated to America. But they hoped to come back one day and use the favorable exchange rate to build spacious mansions. However, various circumstances—be it better social care for the elderly, or their children not wanting to leave the place they'd been born for a land they barely knew—kept many of them in the US. So many of these mansions were left unfinished.
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Warsaw-based photographer Natalia Dołgowska was born in Zakopane, which is Podhale's biggest town. Last year, she traveled back to her home region to photograph the empty buildings that belong to Podhale immigrants in America, as well as photos of their new lives, which they mailed to relatives back home. "I realized that all my childhood, I've been feeling close to America. Growing up, I always envied my friends who had family there—their plastic Christmas trees, their bubble gum, and their flashy sneakers," Natalia said to VICE Poland.
