For centuries, the Tatar relatives on his father’s side resided in what is known today as the Grodno Region of Belarus. Like many other Tatar people unable to return to their ancestral land after the Second World War, his family relocated to Gdansk. Many other Polish Tatars moved to Wroclaw, Szczecin, Gorzow Wielkopolski and Bialystok. Last year, he started to investigate his family history and the existing community of Polish Tatars in north-eastern Poland.

“Despite being brought up as an atheist, I was always very aware of my family history as well as the history of Lipka Tatars. Following many discussions about rising nationalism and Islamophobia, I realised just how very few people are aware of the Muslim community peacefully settled in the heart of Europe for over 600 years. Knowing that Podlasie region is the only place within today’s Polish borders where Tatars not only lived for generations, but are still present today I decided to execute the project there. This was my first visit to the region,” says Korycki, who shot his project The Waning Crescent during the summer of 2017.

There are a lot of misconceptions about Lipka Tatars in his home country. “There is a belief, for example, that Polish Tatars look like Mongolian nomads, that they speak ‘another’ language, and are generally un-Polish. In reality, after 600 years of assimilation, Poles of Tatar heritage are mostly undistinguishable from the rest of the population. Just as their parents, their grandparents and their great-grandparents they speak Polish, think Polish, feel Polish, have Polish surnames, eat Polish food.” At the same time Polish Tatars cultivate their culture by practicing Islam, preserving traditional Turkic names, and nurturing traditional Tatar cuisine (Central Asian dishes with Eastern European influence).

“Today when less than 5% of the population of Poland consider themselves to be a member of an ethnic minority, and over 85% Poles declares themselves to be Roman Catholic,” the photographer urges, “Lipka Tatars are a striking reminder that Poland was once a hugely multicultural and multi-religious country”