(17.08.1934, Dobre – 19.12.2000, Piaseczno)
Photographer and journalist. For more than 20 years she worked for “Perspektywy” magazine (that is, for the entire period of the title’s existence), where she headed the photojournalism department from 1977. She was involved not only in reportage, but was also active in the field of theatrical photography, portrait photography and advertising photography. She retired at the age of 56, but remained further active, undertaking organizational and management work in the Union of Polish Artists Photographers (ZPAF). In 1990-1995 she was president of the Warsaw District of the ZPAF and since 1995 has been treasurer of the Warsaw District of the ZPAF.
She was awarded the Cross of Merit (1979) and the Meritorious Activist of Culture (1989).
The beginnings of a career
Danuta Rago became involved with photography right after high school graduation. Her early interest in the medium may have been influenced by the fact that Stanislaw Rago, the artist’s maternal grandfather, practiced photography in the 1920s and 1930s. He published texts in Fotograf Polski (e.g., no. 4/1925) and was mentioned in a list of Polish photographers compiled by Jan Bulhak himself, considered the “father of Polish artistic photography.”
Danuta Rago in 1952 took a job as a laboratory assistant in the photographic studio at the Ministry’s Board for the Protection and Conservation of Monuments. She jokingly said of her first job: “I started by washing floors and (photographic) trays.” Originally she did not dream at all of becoming a photographer, but an actress. In 1953, she got into the National Theater Academy’s Acting Department, but her marriage (to Wieslaw Nowakowski) and the birth of her child in 1954, changed her original plans. After a year, she was forced to discontinue her acting studies due to the financial situation and took up work as a laboratory technician again – this time at the Documentation Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences at the Microfilm Station. At the same time, she studied extramurally at the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science at Warsaw University.
In a theatrical atmosphere
Desiring to pursue her passion for acting at least to some extent, Rago joined the Student Satirical Theater (STS) in Warsaw in 1956. She was listed as a performer in programs entitled. “Czarne przegrywa czerwona wygrywa” and “Agitka” (both published in the academic year 1955/1956, directed by Jerzy Markuszewski and Wojciech Solarz). As Edward Pallach emphasized in one of his memoirs about this period, Rago knew how to “bravely play” the imposed role. It was in this environment that she had the opportunity to meet, among others, Agnieszka Osiecka. However, activity in the STS was also associated with the need to engage in activities more prosaic than just plays and performances. Posted by STS a humorous income-generating advertisement that read: “We wash windows, wash shirts and perform various other photographic work” – reportedly contributed to Rago obtaining its first photographic order. The commissioner was Grzegorz Lasota, literary critic of “Nowa Kultura” and “Przegląd Kulturalny” (in 1950-1964). Rago’s task was to make prints from microfilms brought by Lasota from Moscow, which contained the poetry of Witold Wandurski.
In the second half of the 1950s, Lasota also headed the Sunday edition of the magazine “Sztandar Młodych” and, in a wave of satisfaction with the task Rago had completed, submitted a proposal to her to work with the title. The photos showing a girl on the beach were the first series Rago was to make for the magazine. Initially, however, the cooperation did not go well: Lasota rejected the material prepared by Rago as many as three times, in addition in the presence of the newspaper’s esteemed reporters (such as Ryszard Kapuściński and Krzysztof Kąkolewski). However, Rago was determined and relentless: on the fourth attempt, the material was published.
Walking through the world of press photography
Rago’s career in the field of press photography quickly gained momentum – soon her photos were published by other titles – such as “Walka Młodych” (1956-1960), “Świat” (1956-1969), “Agencja Robotnicza” (1962-1965). In 1957, she began working full-time at the Workers’ Publishing Cooperative “Press” (Robotnicza Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza “Prasa”.
She was increasingly active in the community and was involved in various organizations. Since 1960 she was a member of the Press Photography Club at the Association of Polish Journalists (Leg. No. 1649). Six years later, she was already a member of the Board of Directors. She was also a member of the presidium of the photography section of the International Organization of Journalists. In turn, from 1966 to 1969 she was active in the Central Photographic Agency (today: the Polish Press Agency), the only agency during the communist period providing the press with a photographic service.
In 1969 Dobroslaw Kobielski, head of the Central Photographic Agency, became editor-in-chief of “Perspektywy” and offered Rago a job at this new weekly news magazine. She worked there for the entire duration of the magazine (until its liquidation in 1990). In 1977 she took over as head of the photojournalism department and coordinated a team that included such photographers as Zbyszko Siemaszko and Tomasz Sikora. In her statements, Rago noted that documentary photographers had to photograph in a “truthful and revealing” way. Despite her many years of professional experience and her skills, she was admitted to the ZPAF only in November 1976 – probably because of the strong masculinization of the photographic community and the depreciation of the position of photojournalism as a less “creative” genre. Its introductory members were Zdzislaw Wdowinski and Zbigniew Raplewski.
