As part of the Retelling the City project, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw is presenting two exhibitions prepared by the APF: The Chroniclers. Photographs of Warsaw 1945-1947 and Stadium 55. The former shows little known works of Zofia Chomętowska and Maria Chrząszczowa who, having returned to Warsaw in 1945, documented the city’s ruins and gradual reconstruction.
Join the Photosprint and Celebrate the Foundation’s 5th Birthday with Us! When: Friday, 29 November, starts at 8 p.m
The 3rd edition of the Archaeology of Photography Foundation’s crazy photography auction, the Photosprint, is coming up. On the walls of the Skwer – branch of the Fabryka Trzciny Art Centre at Skwer Hoovera (Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 60a) will be posted photographs by established and debuting artists, both contemporary and reprints of historical ones. Train your reflexes or simply allow yourself to be seduced by the appeal of best-quality photography! All items with the same starting price, marked just by a number, without author’s name. In the birthday menu also: a portrait station, a lottery, and a dance party!In 1936, Zofia Chomętowska won a competition for the position of a staff photographer of the Ministry of Transport’s Department of Tourism. Her job was to document tourist attractions throughout the territory of the Second Polish Republic. Displayed in public places, e.g. at train stations and inside train cars, the photographs were meant to encourage citizen mobility, stimulate tourism and promote a positive image of the country; their role was thus primarily propagandistic.
Big changes at the Foundation in the new year! Beginning with mid-February, the Foundation will be led by Karolina Puchała-Rojek, who is the co-founder of the Foundation and, up until recently, its vice-president. Marta Szymańska, the programme director of the Łódź Photo Festival, is joining our board. Karolina Lewandowska, who has presided over the Foundation for the past five years, is leaving us in order to gather priceless experience abroad, but will nevertheless support the Foundation with her ideas and good advice.
We warmly invite you to the opening of the exhibition of photographs by Antoni Zdrodowski, a photographer from Białystok. The private view will take place on the 3rd of April (Thursday) at 6.30 pm at the Archaeology of Photography Foundation’s gallery. The exhibition has been curated by Grzegorz Dąbrowski. Feel welcome to take this opportunity to also visit our neighbours – Starter Gallery and Stacja Muranów.
On 14-15 October 2013, the National Museum in Warsaw is going to host the international seminar Photography – Museum Narratives. The seminar is organized by the Archaeology of Photography Foundation, in collaboration with the National Museum in Warsaw and the National Institute of Museology and Collections Protection. The aim of the conference is to investigate the position of photography within contemporary museum institutions and to determine the function and premises of photography museums. This event will bring forth an opportunity to become acquainted with histories of photographic collections and acquiring strategies of institutions such as: Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Getty Museum (LA), Art Institute of Chicago, Musée Nicéphore Niépce (Chalon-sur-Saône) , Musée de l'Élysée (Lausanne), and Rosphoto (St. Petersburg). Program>>
The Archaeology of Photography Foundation has produced a film based on tapes from the archive of outstanding graphic artist and designer, Wojciech Zamecznik, edited by director and cinematographer Adam Palenta.
Discovered years later, amateur films from the People’s Poland era (1945-1989) captivate the viewer with their form and unique sense of humour. Seldom, however, do they show life outside the public sphere; under real socialism, especially in the early period, the film camera was hardly available for private users. From this point of view, the films from the years 1949-1966 discovered in the archive of graphic artist Wojciech Zamecznik constitute highly valuable material, in both aesthetic and documentary terms.
Our readers are encouraged to see the exhibition Fotorejestr. Wolska / Ebert as part of the I Artist. Archives and Amateurs section of the annual Fotosfestiwal in Łódź. Exhibition opens on 6 June at 7. p.m. and is on view through 16 June.
One of the most influential representatives of the Polish postwar photographic avant-garde, Zbigniew Dłubak started working on the theme of the female nude around 1958 and continued it for the rest of his practice. However, he was never considered an expert in nude photography, a paradox that can be explained by the fact that his nudes always followed modernist logic, serving to make statements on the language of photography, on the processes of sign creation and interpretation, or on the mechanisms of visual perception. Emphasized, such theoretical investigations were far more important than the fact that they were carried out on photographs of the naked female body. Gallery>>> Photographs >>>
A seminar devoted to Polish photography, organised by Sabina Jaskot-Gill (University of Essex / Tate) and Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska (APF), will take place at Tate Modern on 6 June 2013. Seminar programme >>>
We’ve posted a gallery of photos from the exhibition Zbigniew Dłubak. Body Structures, part of Photoespaña 2013. Exhibition curator: Karolina Ziębińska-Lewandowska, exhibition design: Jan Strumiłło.
Photographic documentation: Jakub Certowicz / Skanery niewiarygodne
Gallery>>>
We are very pleased to announce that on 25 June 2013 the Archaeology of Photography Foundation received the Minister of Culture and National Heritage's Annual Award in the category of National Heritage Protection.
We thank all our friends and fans for their long-time support.
A video from the award presenting ceremony here>>>
The photograph used in the film and visible on the right is by Zbyszek Carewicz.
Please be informed that due to the holiday season the gallery's opening hours will change. July: Mon-Fri, 10 am - 4 pm, Wed 12-7 pm; August: gallery closed. The APF office works in August and can be reached at (48) 22 628 14 64.
Bolesław Augustis. Every Day is a second instalment in a series of presentations of interesting out-of-Warsaw collections organised by the FAF as part of the Fototeka project.
A very large collection of 35 mm films and several dozen glass negatives left by Białystok-based photographer Bolesław Augustis (1912-1995) was discovered in 2004; through the efforts of Grzegorz Dąbrowski, a photojournalist working for Gazeta Wyborcza’s Białystok edition, the collection was archived and safely stored.
Zbigniew Dłubak (1921-2005) started working on the theme of the female nude around 1958 and continued it for the rest of his practice. However, he was never considered an expert in nude photography, a paradox that can be explained by the fact that his nudes always followed modernist logic, serving to make statements on the language of photography, on the processes of sign creation and interpretation, or on the mechanisms of visual perception.
The cover of the Shoes and Accessories catalogue published in 1954 by the Warsaw Institute of Industrial Design (IWP) features open-toe sandals and a wicker-and-canvas handbag. Just as modern design and local traditions are merged today, so, it turns out, they were under real socialism. The comprehensive catalogue text discussing the summer collection prototypes suggests that the designers sought not only functionality of form but also economically viable and hygienic solutions. Behind the text’s ideologized language stands a product-design philosophy that sounds surprisingly modern and fresh today.
A preview of new publications has been posted, among them Wojciech Zamecznik Now; Zbigniew Dłubak, Body Structure; Katarzyna Mirczak, ether; Jerzy Lewczyński, Informément, Zofia Chomętowska, Archivo privado and a re-edition of Zofia Rydet’s Little Man.
The Foundation has completed the digitization of Zofia Chomętowska’s private archive, a collection that includes, but is not limited to, images from her life in Argentina after 1947. The digitized archive will be soon available online and a selection of photographs published in a separate volume. View a sample gallery.
The digitization of Zofia Chomętowska’s archive has been made possible by financial support from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The Foundation has completed the digitization of Wojciech Zamecznik’s collection of over 300 posters, photographic studies and mock-ups. A selection of images has been posted in gallery, the complete collection will be made available online soon.
The digitization of Wojciech Zamecznik’s archive has been financially supported under the Digital Heritage program.
(I’m) Moviemaking is a unique, never previously shown film by Zofia Chomętowska, offering glimpses from the private life of her aristocratic family and friends in the late 1920s. The film is a one-of-a-kind 27-minute-long montage of archival footage, conceived by Karolina Puchała-Rojek, with literary commentary by Mikołaj Łoziński and music by the Warsaw Village Band. The material remained in obscurity until only recently, as did the very fact that Chomętowska had ever made films, even though this major pre-1950 Polish woman photographer actually debuted, at the Poznań National Exhibition in 1929, with a film rather than a photography project.