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

---

 
Exposing Wounds:  
Traces of Trauma in Post-War  
Polish Photography 
 
Sabina Gill 
 
 
 
 
A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 
 
Department of Philosophy & Art History 
 
University of Essex 
 
May 2017 

---

2 
 
 
 

---

3 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  
 
My gratitude must firstly be extended to my supervisor Maggie Iversen, who I increasingly believe 
must have the patience of a saint.  
The support from Tate needs acknowledgement, firstly from my supervisor Simon Baker, but also 
Kasia Redzisz in the Curatorial department, and Nigel Llewellyn and Helen Griffiths in the Research 
Department, who greatly assisted me in organising a research seminar on Polish photography at 
Tate Modern in June 2013. My gratitude also extends to all those who participated in the seminar, 
especially to those who presented papers: Karolina Lewandowska, who co-organised the event, 
Sylwia Serafinowicz, Marika Kuźmicz, Sarah James, Krzysztof Pijarski, and Chantal Pontbriand. 
The encouragement and enthusiasm of fellow Collaborative Doctoral Award Students at Tate has 
also been stimulating. 
Thank you to Karolina Lewandowska and Rafał Lewandowski, both for the extraordinary access 
they offered to the archives of the Archaeology of Photography Foundation and Galeria Asymetria 
in Warsaw for the purposes of my research, but also for their hospitality in welcoming me into their 
home and sharing their extensive archive of photography magazines. 
I would like to thank the many Polish artists and curators who have taken the time to discuss the 
topic of Polish photography with me: Krzysztof Jurecki, Marika Kuzmicz, Adam Mazur, Cezary 
Piekary, Krzysztof Pijarski, Adam Sobota, Józef Robakowski, and Andrzej Różycki, all of whom have 
contributed to the content of this thesis. 
Thank you to Juliet Hacking for distracting me with the offer of employment, and for providing 
invaluable counsel, and also for setting me on the path of Polish photography nearly a decade ago.  
I must also thank colleagues at the National Portrait Gallery for their continued support. 
Finally, without the unwavering encouragement and support of family and friends, both present and 
now absent, this thesis would not have been possible.  
James, I promised you that one day this PhD would be finished… your determination in the face of 
adversity has been truly inspirational. 
To Babcia and Dziadz, this thesis is dedicated to you. Kocham ciȩ serdecznie. 
 
 
 

---

4 
 
 
 
 

---

5 
 
ABSTRACT 
 
This thesis draws on psychoanalytic theories of trauma to interrogate works 
produced by Polish photographers after the Second World War. The aim of this 
thesis is to excavate traces of trauma latently embedded in post-war Polish art 
photography. By closely analysing a selection of photographs produced between the 
years 1945 and 1970, I argue that the events of the war cast a shadow over the lives 
of Polish artists. Rather than looking at photographs which directly visualise these 
traumatic events, I explore the ways in which these experiences manifest 
themselves indirectly or obliquely in the art of the period, through abstraction, a 
tendency towards ‘dark realism,’ and an interest in traces of human presence. 
 
The events of the war were not the only traumas to cast their shadow on the Polish 
psyche. Between 1945 and 1970, Poland underwent a series of transitions and 
changes in leadership, population and Party politics. Periods of optimism and 
leniency oscillated with phases of repression and social unrest. In my analysis, I 
suggest that multiple traumas can be discerned in these decades. What is at stake in 
this thesis is the proposition that a photograph can bear imperceptible traces of 
events that have wounded the psyche, which could not be articulated at the time, but 
which were made visible at a later date. Photographs made in the post-war years 
provided a space to belatedly return to encrypted traumas, to relay ideas that could 
not otherwise be articulated, and to acknowledge events that had been disavowed. 
 
WORD COUNT: 70,618 

---

6 
 
 
 

---

7 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS  
 
 
 
 
Acknowledgements  
3  
Abstract  
5  
 
 
Introduction: Exposing Wounds 
9 
 
I.
 
Modern Polish Photography  
31 
 
II.
 
 
 
1.
 
Step into Modernity 
69 
2.
 
Dark Realism 
78 
3.
 
Formal Frolics 
99 
4.
 
Anti-Photography 
125 
 
III.
 
 
1.
 
Subjective Photography 
149 
2.
 
Forge 
  176 
 
Conclusion   
207 
 
Bibliography 
215 
 
 
 

---