LISTEN TO PHOTOGRAPHY. INTRODUCTION TO ORAL HISTORY OF POLISH PHOTOGRAPHY

Jan Cieślak, Aleksandra Chwilczyńska, Aleksandra Idler, Agata Jabłońska, Wiktoria Kałwak, Olga Kolber, Hanna Liubakova,  Martyna Nowicka, Konrad Wojnowski

Coordinator: Martyna Nowicka

Academic adviser: dr hab. Andrzej Szczerski

 

 

 

In spite of the increasing number of publications on the subject, the history of Polish photography still remains an open area for research. A key method of describing and interpreting the past is “oral history,” which offers the opportunity to hear the opinions of the creators of photographs as well as the critics, art historians, and curators dealing with the presentation and amassing of photographic collections. A series of interviews was conducted with them by participants in Dr Andrzej Szczerski’s seminars at the Institute of History of Art of the Jagiellonian University, collecting statements on their own work and individual views on the history of Polish photography. The interview script was prepared according to the instructions of Charlotte Cotton with reference to her “oral history” of British photography conducted for the British Library Sound Archive in London.