„Charm and Fantasy”. Fashion and Advertising in the Polish People’s Republic in the Photography of Zbigniew K. Wołyński
The history of advertising photography and fashion in the Polish People’s Republic is one of the least recognized episodes in the history of Polish photographic art. The specific economic and political situation of the country and the concentration of the photographic community around the goals set by the Association of Polish Art Photographers meant that commercial activity was marginalized and almost completely omitted from creative biographies.
One of the figures absent from discussions of twentieth-century photography is the hero of the exhibition, Zbigniew K. Wołyński, an artist who played a huge role in shaping the ideas of advertising photography and fashion at the time. He was a photographer who set trends in the local advertising community, and at the same time, his attitude and specificity of workshop reflect a number of conditions and contexts of functioning of the then creators focused on utilitarian goals. In the period from the mid-fifties to the end of the Gierek decade, his works often took on the character of model material.
design: Dorota Terelcka
curator: Maciej Szymanowicz
graphics: Julia Mirny
foto: Daria Szczygieł
National Museum in Gdańsk
