She-Documentalists

The exhibition emerged with the aim of presenting two fields of photography that have up until now been marginalized by the history of Polish photography: the work of documentary photographers and photography done by women. The exhibition will present the work of fifty Polish women documentary photographers, but we are aware that the selection represents only a fragment of the phenomenon. Even though most of the featured authors enjoyed recognition, or even fame, in their lifetime, they have by now fallen into oblivion.

This exhibition constitutes one of the possible historical constructions. In chronological terms, it encompasses the period from the 1870s (to which period date the earliest known non-studio documentary photographs) right up to contemporary documentary-artistic projects that have been so often present in recent years in galleries and museums.

Two most significant themes are topographical documentary photography and social report photography. The exhibition also covers other themes which can be included within the frame of the concept of documentary photography, such as ethnographic and travel photography, amateur photography produced by aristocratic women, patriotic photography, propaganda photography, war photography or report photography as a form of artistic photography.

She-Documentalists
Polish Women Photographers of the 20th Century

mit Dorota Bilska, Anna Beata Bohdziewicz, Anna Brzezinska, Anna Chojnacka, Zofia Chometowska, Joanna Helander, Irena Jarosinska, Irena Jurkiewicz, Julia Pirotte, Jadwiga Rubis, Maria Zbaska