I like you, I like you a lot

'I like you, I like you a lot' is a personal work about family and the experience of death and mourning. It responds to the tragic loss of the photographer's 13-year-old brother Maks, who drowned while on a scout's trip in 2008 in Poland. The pictures reveal the sequence of events in the aftermath of the tragedy. Alicja Dobrucka's camera became a protecting shield from the brutal reality of a helpless situation. The deceased brother and his closest friends formed a small group. Dressed in uniforms of American soldiers they would play in the Silesian landscapes once painted by Caspar David Friedrich. Communism ended in 1990 when Poland opened its borders to a flood of Western products and ideals. Maks and his friends were the first generation to grow up under that changing culture. The camera witnesses how they were enthralled by Western and especially American archetypes.