Polesie - the most noteworthy shots.

The “picturesque” movement dominant in the interwar period imposed a number of formal limitations on photographers working within the genre. The influence of the movement is also clearly visible in the best-known and oft published works of Chometowska, and can be traced in her motionless prints and painterly approach to a theme. However, her use of the Leica camera and in-depth knowledge of the Polesie region yielded unique photographs that often went beyond the aura of popular landscape postcard shots. “The Laundress”, one of early photographs shown at an exhibition in Vilnius in 1933, is unquestionably among Chometowska’s emblematic works. The brilliant composition, consisting of two diagonals and a character seen from the rear, captivated the attention of contemporary viewers so strongly that the author published it in a volume of collected texts about the Leica camera Leica in Poland [Leica w Polsce] of 1936, and included it in her individual exhibition held in Warsaw the same year. The above-mentioned volume also featured Chometowska’s “Polesie Woman” a photograph considered exceptional due to its close-up and perfectly captured shadows.