Exposing Wounds: Traces of Trauma in Post-War Polish Photography

36 
 
“From the point of view of the psychological hygiene of modern man – the intricate 
mental process of artistic creation moved out from the stuffy atmosphere of the past – into 
the sun, light and bright. The sun as a factor in revealing the beauty of life in our 
surrounding world, has become a symbol of photography and its staunchest ally.
15
 The 
implied message in Schulz’s words, as endorsed by the Ministry of Culture, was that 
photographers should create imagery that focused on the beauty of life, rather than 
referencing the tragedies of the past. This was later stressed by Jakub Berman, the minster 
for public security and leading member of the Politburo, in a speech at a 1950 writers’ 
conference titled O własciwe stanowisko [The Correct Position]: “It is yet another appeal 
to the literary conscience of those writers who want to derive the material for their work 
from life and struggles, who do not want to become narcissists focused on their loneliness 
and past; who do not want the fast current of the new life to flow by them.”
16
 Berman’s 
words suggest that in 1950 the period of coming to terms with the past was over, and was 
to be replaced with a more constructive activity, namely the building of socialism. This 
can perhaps go some way towards explaining the lack of art photography in these post-
war years that directly addresses the events of the war, despite many photographers 
having experienced the war directly. 
Schulz’s opening paragraph also reveals a fundamental disparity between the message 
that the Ministry wished artists to communicate, and the reality of events in post-war 
Poland. Schulz stated that an attitude geared towards “revealing the beauty of the world” 
would be “in keeping with the atmosphere of our artistic present, with respect to which no 
one is experiencing any conflicts.”
17
 This appears to reference post-war peace after the 
damaging years of the Second World War. At the same time, it denies conflicts that were 
ongoing after the official end of the war in 1945. Mass arrests, expulsions and executions 
still continued, and many Poles in areas of Eastern Poland found themselves forcibly 
deported, their home territories having been integrated into areas of the Ukraine and 
Baltic States. The immediate post-war years also saw thousands of Polish independence 
fighters oppose the new communist regime, launching attacks on the offices of Soviet law 
enforcement agencies. These clandestine resistance organisations continued to fight 
against the Stalinist government of Poland for a number of years, although their actions 
                                                      
15
 Ibid. 
16
 Jakub Berman’s words at the Writers’ Association conference in 1950. Adam Wazyk, “O własciwe 
stanowisko” [The Correct Position], Kuznica 10 (1950). 
17
 Schulz, introduction to I Ogólnopolska Wystawa Fotografiki, n.p. 

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37 
 
were violently suppressed. Schulz’s seemingly innocuous words actively avoided any 
mention of these events. This points to a wider question of truthfulness and, specifically, 
the truth value of photography in post-war Poland, a theme that is explored later in the 
chapter. 
The exhibition also made clear the status of art photography in Poland at this time. All the 
exhibited artists were members of the Związek Polskich Artystów Fotografików [Union of 
Polish Photographic Artists] (ZPAF), which was founded in 1947 by Jan Bułhak and 
Leonard Sempoliński.
18
 Bułhak, frequently dubbed the ‘father of Polish photography,’ is 
remembered as one of the leading Pictorialists of the early twentieth century in Poland, 
known for his soft-focused renderings of bucolic Polish landscapes [1.4]. Bułhak and 
Sempoliński were both exhibited in the 1947 exhibition and several of the featured artists 
had been their students, so the work on display clearly remained within this tradition. The 
inclusion of a text by a representative from the Ministry suggests that a perpetuation of 
this genre of photography was supported. The accompanying catalogue detailed the 
photographic processes used to create the works in the show: alongside silver gelatin, 
photographers also made use of bromoil, gum bichromate and gevaluxe, a printing paper 
that mimics the appearance of velvet; this list reads like secessionist work from the turn 
of the century, rather than an articulation of contemporary concerns in photography 
almost fifty years later. 
Pictorialist photography had gained international support at the turn of the twentieth 
century through the efforts of Secessionist groups in Europe and America which brought 
together like minded photographers keen to claim the artistic value for their medium. 
These groups largely consisted of serious amateurs attempting to mark a distinction 
between themselves and a newly emerging mass hobby culture for photography, created 
by the introduction of affordable, easy-to-use camera technology. Using photography as a 
means of artistic expression, Pictorialist photographers often imitated the effects of 
painting, drawing and etching in their photographs to create hazy, impressionistic 
landscapes and portraits, and used elaborate, time-consuming printing processes 
involving platinum, gum, bichromate and carbon, all of which allowed for a great deal of 
handwork on both the negative and the print. After the first decade of the century, heavy 
manipulation and hazy atmospheric images had fallen out of favour with many 
                                                      
18
 Originally named the Polish Union of Art Photographers [Polski Związek Artystów Fotografików] but 
renamed ZPAF in 1952, the name by which it is still known today. 

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