Simultaneously, the album contains snapshots from the streets of Warsaw, carefully observed by Jarosińska. She leads readers to the Bazar Różyckiego market, between tenement houses in the Praga district, through the urban mixture of monumental churches and street beer bars.
The artist would also often press the shutter while standing in the window of her legendary Pracownia Studio, at the intersection of Świerczewskiego and Orla Streets. Her small space in the attic became a place of passionate discussions, not only about art. The intellectual elite of the communist-era opposition movement would meet here; there were lectures and exhibitions. Miron Białoszewski describes one of them in his Diary:
A private exhibition on the seventh floor at Irena Małek-Jarosińska’s, who photographed us in our theatrical era and with whose brother I climbed on the top of the ruins of Prudential […] Irena lent her studio to a young photographer. Many people gathered, Lu. And Lu. [Ludwik Hering and Ludmiła Murawska], Sandauer with Erna, Henio Stażewski, Włodzio Borowski, many young ones, the bearded man from Wrocław. Irena said that the author of the exhibition is a very young person, who can register and who does it in an ordinary manner. […] Then Irena called and started a discussion.
Thus, an intimate studio turned into a gallery presenting work from female nudes to the famous Red Exhibition, on which all the paintings were made using red paint, which – to the artist’s surprise - drew international media attention.
Cepelia in Warsaw, like Mad Men in the U.S.
'What do I notice when I look at her photographs?' asks an astonished Chris Niedenthal, photographer of the Solidarity movement and one of the best European photojournalists, in a letter to his master, Tadeusz Rolke:
First of all, I see, that she registers either natural life, or life in a natural way. One can immediately notice that she can make her subjects feel good, which is one of the secrets of photographing people [...] I especially like one image – probably taken in one of the Cepelia shops – which was supposed to depict a cashier or receptionist. A pretty blonde woman sits with her back to the camera, by a 1950s desk and an impressive lamp. In the background you can see a man in a hat entering the shop. I’ve never seen a similar photo of a Warsaw shop. The similarity to the cult TV drama Mad Men about the world of post-war American advertising struck me. It’s incredible that Jarosińska took her photo at least 60 years before the drama was screened on TV!
And Rolke's own recollections include artistic and social events in the photographer’s studio and her effortlessness in making new friends, which often resulted in successful photographic sessions.
'We all put a lot of hope in art, hope for a change in the oppressive, gloomy world which surrounded us', remembers Anka Ptaszkowska, the art historian and and co-founder of the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, in a conversation published in Picture Writing. She recalls artistic studios that played a role similar to literary salons in the interwar period. The leader among the informal centres of artistic life was the studio of avant-garde painters Henryk Stażewski and Maria Ewa Łankiewicz-Rogoyska; another important place was the Krzywe Koło gallery. Irena Jarosińska recorded and photographed this movement not only from the position of a witness, but also as a participant. 'Irena’s testimony can be the most complex one', says Ptaszkowska. 'She showed our life on the images; she was the photojournalist of that time. She made the possibly most multi-faceted document of the places to which we were connected'.
Irena Jarosińska (1924–1996), Polish photographer and photojournalist, chemistry graduate at the University of Warsaw. Since the mid-1950s, she was in a relationship with Zbigniew Dłubak – photographer, painter and art theorist. Together, they photographed the collective State Agricultural Farms (PGR) for agricultural magazines. She belonged to the 55 Group, with which she exhibited her photomontages. In the 1980s and 1990s, she organized many exhibitions and artistic events in her studio. Additionally, she fulfilled her passion for photography during travels in India, Nepal, Egypt, Malaysia, Singapore and Afghanistan.
Pismo obrazkowe/Picture Writing - Irena Jarosińska,
Compiled by Agata Bujnowska and Joanna Łuba
Ośrodek KARTA 2013
Author: Anna Cymer, translated by: Olga Drenda, November 2013