Decade-long search for old polaroid photos results in spellbinding exhibition
Cited as being one of the largest photographic reviews ever held in Poland, an exhibition dedicated to ‘instant photography’ has thrilled both the general public and the country’s artistic milieu.
Held in the Gdańsk Gallery of Photography, a sub-branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk, the exhibition presents over 2,000 photos taken over the last 50 years.
Titled ‘Archives in a Flash: Instant/Instax in Poland’, the exhibition is the result of a decade of research conducted by the curator, Witold Kanicki.
Often stored and long-forgotten inside messy boxes kept in damp basements or the darkest recesses of an artist’s studio, the photos took 10 years to bring together.
“Traditionally speaking, Polish curators, historians and critics haven’t paid much attention to instant photography, at least not in the same manner as more western countries,” Kanicki tells TFN. “But the polaroid photographs of cultural figures such as Nobyoshi Araki, Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol serve as a real example.
“Add to that the fact that the contemporary history of art is often concentrated on the margins, I thought that an exhibition of instant photography would be a perfect fit.”
Beginning his research 10 years ago, Kanicki looked “beyond the mainstream history of the medium” to seek out the Polish photographers that used instant film. In the process, the curator unearthed a motherlode of unsung treasures, often stored and long-forgotten inside messy boxes kept in damp basements or the darkest recesses of an artist’s studio.
The photos offer a fascinating glimpse into a country shaped by an unforgiving totalitarian regime – that these pictures are ascetic, imperfect and untouched by any post-production techniques serves to only feed into the atmosphere of the times, providing the viewer with a window into the past that feels almost startlingly vivid.
“Our political and economic history meant that this kind of photography was quite exotic in the past,” he says. “Even so, I think that instant photography has been overlooked – especially by those working in the arts – due to the amateur nature of the cameras.
“They were essentially created to satisfy non-professional, family photographers, and this clashed with the idea that professionals should use expensive high-end equipment and then process their photographs in a traditional darkroom.
“Moreover, a false impression exists that instant photography equates to low quality.”
The exhibition includes photographs shot by some of Poland’s leading cultural icons, among them the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda, photographic legend Teresa Gierzyńska and artist Paweł Althamer.
This exhibition, hopes Kanicki, will redress the balance when it comes to our relationship and critical acceptance of instant photography.
To meet this end, photographs shot by some of Poland’s leading cultural icons are featured, among them the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda, photographic legend Teresa Gierzyńska and artist Paweł Althamer.
“Some are incredible,” says Kanicki. “For example, the mid-1970s Polaroids taken by Wacław Nowak are better in colour quality than those of the same era taken using film. There are some you’d think were taken only recently.”
It is such images dating from the PRL years that Kanicki awards the most importance to, and aside from the works of Nowak the curator also points to the work of Ryszard Bobek and Teresa Gierzyńska.
The huge bank of photos taken by a Poznań collective called the Minilabists are fun and quirky and emphasize the “party character” of instant photographs.
With Polaroid cameras considered an untold luxury, they were often brought out only for the most special of occasions: christenings, confirmations, weddings and holidays.
Gierzyńska, however, turned her camera to more everyday events and her photographs act as a compelling inside view into everyday life during the height of Communism – in one snap, a male sorts through his food stamps whilst a hardboiled egg rests in front of him; in another, her daughter peers through the Western press.
Away from the mundane reality, her photos also involve pictures of visiting celebrities such as the songstress Kora and German artist Josef Beuys.
Curator Witold Kanicki said: “The mid-1970s Polaroids taken by Wacław Nowak are better in colour quality than those of the same era taken using film. There are some you’d think were taken only recently.”
Taken together, these offer a fascinating glimpse into a country shaped by an unforgiving totalitarian regime – that these pictures are ascetic, imperfect and untouched by any post-production techniques serves to only feed into the atmosphere of the times, providing the viewer with a window into the past that feels almost startlingly vivid.
“If people left with just an awareness of the specificity and political meaning of instant photography in Poland then I’d be happy,” says Kanicki.
Certainly, this is one of the underlying currents of the exhibition, and it is not without irony that we realize that it was with hard-to-source Western technology (i.e. the Polaroid) that the very visual culture of the Eastern Bloc was so accurately captured.
Rafał Milach’s ‘travel portfolios’ taken in Belarus have a haunting, ethereal quality that feels suspended in time.
However, this exhibition is more than simply a deep dive into the PRL, a point pressed home by Kanicki: “I chose pictures that I thought would show the complex history of instant photography in Poland, so aesthetic, political, historical and narrative values were all important.”
This approach manifests itself in other sections of the exhibition where, for instance, visitors can look at ‘photographic notes’ taken to serve as reference points by the likes of Wajda (who used them on his film sets) as well as artists such as Paweł Althamer and Rafał Milach.
Where the latter is concerned, his ‘travel portfolios’ taken in Belarus have a haunting, ethereal quality that feels suspended in time.
Viewers can also browse sensuous photos of pop phenomenon Doda taken by Bartek Wieczorek and Zuza Krajewska.
The flexibility of the medium is left in no doubt, and along the way viewers can browse sensuous photos of pop phenomenon Doda taken by Bartek Wieczorek or the huge bank of photos taken by a Poznań collective called the Minilabists – fun and quirky these, says, Kanicki, emphasize the “party character” of instant photographs, whilst the works of Leszek Brogowski and Rafał Kucharczuk cause us to ponder their “experimental and even abstract potential.”
An unexpected joy, this is an exhibition that breaks fresh ground to offer a unique retrospective of Polish photography – that it does so whilst simultaneously delivering an intriguing documentation of the everyday life of Poles is an additional feather in its cap.
“Given that these types of pictures are overlooked by historians I’ll be satisfied if visitors just leave remembering some of the names and photographs,” says Kanicki. “Of course, I’ll also be happy if people leave and are inspired to buy their own instant camera.”
