Sixteen years ago, Richard Robinson met a Polish woman, Ania Matuszczak, diving at the Poor Knights. Now, the couple live in Auckland, and have three kids—from left, Nina, Eva and Ted.
“For us they’re not just Kiwis,” Robinson says, “they are Polish, and we’re really keen for them to grow up in that culture.”
The family try to travel to Poland most years. In 2024, they finally managed to do something they’d always planned: get the kids into Polish schools for a year of full immersion.
“They’re doing great, they’re thriving,” Robinson says. “The real highlight is just time with the family… Being Polish, and living in Poland.”
He took this photograph in Warsaw, while out for a walk with the kids. Tiny Catholic chapels like the one in the background are all over the city, he says, in private courtyards as well as public spaces.
Robinson managed to spend a few months in Warsaw with Ania and the kids, but has been in New Zealand for most of the year, working—and missing them heaps. Shooting the feature about Polish children given a new home in Pahiatua during WWII was a welcome moment of connection. “The joy I saw was in families being together,” he says. During the formalities, the children, now in their 80s and 90s, were clearly delighted to be together. “They almost needed to be shushed like naughty schoolkids.”