The Temptation of Advertising. Around Polish Advertising Photography in the Second Half of the 1970s
Maciej Szymanowicz
m.szym@amu.edu.plDepartment of Protection of Cultural Heritage and Intercultural Communication – Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0484-3350
Abstract
The aim of this article is to present one of the most forgotten and academically disregarded themes of the 20th-century history of Polish photography, namely, the Polish artists’ interest in advertising photography. Despite an extensive historical introduction, the text is mainly devoted to exhibitions held in the period 1977–1979, which were the culmination point in the development of advertising photography in the People’s Republic of Poland. These were the exhibition Polska Fotografia Reklamowa (Poznań, 1978) and the advertising photography displays at the “Złocisty Jantar” Polish Photography Competition in Gdańsk (1977 and 1979). In addition, the article contains an analysis of three radical ways of practising advertising photography, proposed by Małgorzata W. Borowska, Tomek Sikora, Marcin Mroszczak and Stefan Wojnecki, exemplifying the aspirations of the art of persuasion at the time.
Keywords:
advertising photography, fashion photography, socialist advertising, photographic exhibitions in Poland during the communist period, duogram, Małgorzata W. Borowska, Tomek Sikora, Stefan WojneckiReferences
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Authors
Maciej Szymanowiczm.szym@amu.edu.pl
Department of Protection of Cultural Heritage and Intercultural Communication – Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0484-3350
Maciej Szymanowicz PhD (habil.) is a historian of art specialising in the history of photography. He holds the post of a professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Since 2018 he has been the chairman of the Scientific Association of Photography based in Poznań. He has cooperated with many institutions, including the National Museum in Warsaw in organising the exhibition of the works of Jan Bułhak (2006), National Gallery of Art in Washington in organising the exhibition Foto. Modernity in Central Europe, 1918–1945 (2007), Museum of Modern Art in New York during the project OBJECT: PHOTO. Modern Photographs. The Thomas Walther Collection 1909–1949 (2013–2014), Herder-Institut in Marburg in editing materials from the legacy of Ernst Stewner (2014). He was the curator of the exhibition, and editor of the attendant catalogue, „Wdzięk i fantazja”. Moda i reklama w PRL-u w twórczości fotograficznej Zbigniewa K. Wołyńskiego (National Museum in Gdańsk, 2022–2023). He is the author of the book Zaburzona epoka. Polska fotografia artystyczna w latach 1945–1955 (2016) and the co-author of the anthology Polscy fotografowie, teoretycy i krytycy o fotografii 1839–1989 (2023).
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