Opening - June 24 at 17.00 to the granary of Wilkow on the grounds of the Radom Village Museum
"Sociological Record".
The photographer began creating her magnum opus: "Sociological Record" from 1978 (she was 67 at the time), a series with no equivalent in Polish photography, a gigantic portrait of a human family in the interior. She continued it until the end of her photographic activity wherever she found herself, overcoming her own weakness.
"Record" consists of several thousand negatives, on which Rydet wanted to capture the transient traditional image of the Polish countryside. The photographs in this series depict people in their home environment in a manner reminiscent of 19th-century "factory photography"; they are characterized by the directness and simplicity of the shot, the personal attitude of the photographer to the depicted motif, naturalness and sincerity of intent.
Like most post-war artists, the author of "Sociological Record" came to photography through the path of an amateur: through passionate photography, meetings, discussions, mutual criticism among enthusiasts.
The main core of the entire collection - paintings referred to as canonical shots - consisted of images of rural and urban residents, created in different regions of Poland. They are united by strict compositional rigor. They show people - singly, in pairs or in a group, against the background of a selected wall of their apartment. The photographs were taken using flash, with the widest possible image of the entire interior and the greatest possible depth of field.
Her works are in the most important Polish collections, including. National Museum in Wroclaw and at the Museum of Art in Lodz, as well as at MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, UK.
Rydet's photos have appeared in numerous group exhibitions, as well as at prestigious art fairs, among others Paris Photo 2011, today they can be seen at the Radom Village Museum.
The following are invited to the opening of the exhibition June 24 at 17:00 to the granary of Wilkow on the grounds of the Radom Village Museum. The opening will be accompanied by a meeting dedicated to Zofia Rydet, whose guests will be Andrzej Zygmuntowicz - lecturer Polish artist-photographer, Vice President of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Artistic Council of ZPAF, lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Bibliology at the University of Warsaw, and Kazimierz Lyszcz lecturer at the University of Technology and Humanities assistant professor at the Department of Visual Structures and Theory of Art.
Zofia Rydet - is considered one of the most outstanding figures of Polish photography. She was born on May 5, 1911 in Stanislawow in the Eastern Borderlands. After the war and a short stay in Rabka, she settled in Bytom. The main subject of her photographic stories was the human being, depicted in a variety of shots, portraits and reportage set in his natural environment.
The exhibition was held under the patronage of the Marshal of the Mazovia region, Mr. Adam Struzik.
The exhibition can be viewed until the end of September.
The exhibition is curated by Sebastian Klochowicz.
Photography Quarterly has given its patronage to this event
