Flood in Konstancin, 1947

In 1947, as it was rebuilding itself from the destruction of war, Poland was hit by a massive thaw flood. Chrząszczowa conveyed a rather subdued image of the natural disaster, unlike Jerzy Bossak’s award-winning film The Flood, which showed the tragedy in all its ghastly splendour. Chrząszczowa documented the flood’s late stage: the last thaws and the overflowing Jeziorka River near the Old Paper Mill. She captured an image of the neo-Gothic Church of the Holy Virgin Mary at Piłsudskiego Street 54, a design of Józef Pius Dziekoński and Zdzisław Mączeński, reflected in the flood waters. Chrząszczowa lived in Konstancin until the 1960s, when she moved to Polna Street in Warsaw.