Tadeusz Rolke EVERYTHING IS PHOTOGRAPHY

The Tadeusz Rolke birthday exhibition is an extensive retrospective that focuses on his most recent work. Tadeusz Rolke, a legend of Polish photography, has contributed extensively to the growth of this medium in Poland. His many years of work as a photographer, lecturer, extremely active participant in current artistic life, his many years of membership of the Polish Art Photographers Association and its Art Council, cooperation with periodicals and magazines in Poland and abroad make him one of the most eminent personalities of Polish photography.

Tadeusz Rolke (b. 1929 in Warsaw) began photographing during World War II. He was deported into forced labor to Germany for his participation in the Warsaw Uprising. He returned to Poland after the War. As an art student, he was jailed in 1951 for alleged participation in an "antistate association". After the political thaw of 1953, Rolke worked for the "Stolica" weekly and the lauded Polska monthly. Rolke spent 1970-1980 living in Germany and photographing for periodicals like "Stern", "Spiegel", and "Die Zeit". His Fischmarkt series from Hamburg received international acclaim. After returning to Warsaw in 1980, he initiated and produced group shows, including in the Stara Galeria of the Polish Art Photographers Association. In the mid-1990s, Rolke began closer cooperation with the "Gazeta Wyborcza" daily, where he runs photojournalistic reports from Poland and abroad, including places diverse as Ukraine and Tunisia. He also began work with the prestigious German art periodical, "Art". Rolke lectured at the University of Warsaw's journalism department, ran workshops for young journalists and photojournalists and is often invited to be a juror in Polish and international photography competitions.

Joseph Beuys, 1971

Tadeusz Rolke's extensive photographic catalogue focuses on humanistic photography. He is deeply concerned with people as well as their public and private surroundings. Rolke's series of portraits depicting artists, people of culture and politics constitute important artistic photographic achievements. This CCA exhibition references his previous show at the Ujazdowski Castle in 1997, and presents about 120 photographs and distinct thematic cycles that accent the circumstances and times during which they were taken. After CCA, the exhibit will travel to Poznań, Łódź and Wrocław.

Curator: Marek Grygiel.

Tadeusz Rolke "EVERYTHING IS PHOTOGRAPHY"
Exhibition celebrating the artist's 80th birthday.
Kurator: Marek Grygiel