Speaker: Karolina Puchała-Rojek

We have to look at the Zofia Chomętowska’s photographs using the world map. She used to live in Porochońsk in Polesie region (Belarus today), in Warsaw, Częstochowa, London, Paris, Marseilles and Buenos Aires. She visited Italy and Holland regularly. She started taking photos of Italian and French cities as an amateur during her vacation. Then she became professional when it comes to taking pictures “on the road”. Since 1936 she worked for the Ministry of Communication, her task was to create series of photographs of particular places in Poland. In 1939 while running away from Polesie war zone, she took pictures of it risking her own life. Then, since 1946 she kept taking photos on her way to Buenos Aires in search of a new life.

The photographic map of those journeys can be recreated thanks to the Archaeology of Photography Foundation which for over 5 years has worked on the Chomętowska’s negatives archive.

 Karolina Puchała-Rojek (Poland) is an art historian, a postgraduate student in IS PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Art) where she is working on the Zofia Chomętowska’s monograph. In 2008 she was a coauthor of the Archaeology of Photography Foundation. She had been a vice-chairwoman of the foundation for 5 years; since 2014 she has been a chairwoman of the organization. She is also a coordinator of digital and exhibition projects, a curator, the author of the texts on the photography history and a book editor. She edited the following books: Zofia Chomętowska, „Polesie” (2011) and „Polska w podróży”(2013). She is currently working on the Wojciech Zamecznik’s monograph exhibition.