Tomasz Tomaszewski and Małgorzata Niezabitowska, photo: Forum
The award from the U.S. Embassy in Poland recognizes contributions to international understanding. This year’s award goes to the project Rediscovering America: A Generation Later
The award was presented in Warsaw on the 4th of July during a reception celebrating Independence Day.
Journalist Małgorzata Niezabitowska and photographer Tomasz Tomaszewski first documented their months of traveling in the U.S. in 1987 - 25 years ago. The resulting photo essay, Discovering America, was published in National Geographic magazine a year later, and was recognized by readers as one of the best pieces of 1988. An exhibition of the photographs, under the title Search for America, later toured several Polish cities and attracted great interest.
Rediscovering American: A Generation Later, photo: © Tomasz Tomaszewski
Niezabitowska and Tomaszewski recently set off on the same trip, revisiting the places they had documented a quarter century earlier. The exhibition Rediscovering American: A Generation Later is the result of this journey. It can be seen at the headquarters of U.S. Ambassador Stephen Mull. Tomaszewski says:
Working for National Geographic I have visited more than 60 countries, but not one has fascinated me like the United States. I feel there a metaphysical sense of freedom. As soon as I land, I can smell freedom in the air. America is a country that defies description, a world divided into separate states, each of which is a separate world onto itself.
Małgorzata Niezabitowska is a journalist and writer and was spokeswoman for Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Poland's first non-communist prime minister in 1989. In 1981, she worked with the publication Tygodnik Solidarność. After it was disbanded, she wrote for Stern, Paris Match, and the Italian newspaper La Republica. In 2010, she published a family saga Folding Bath, and is currently working on a second part. She is one of the originators of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and in April 2013 she was nominated by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage to the Program Council of the Museum. She was also one of the initiators of the Women’s Congress.
Rediscovering American: A Generation Later, photo: © Tomasz Tomaszewski
Tomasz Tomaszewski, Niezabitowska’s husband, is a highly esteemed Polish photographer. He has worked with National Geographic for twenty years, is a member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers, and has taught photography in Poland, the U.S., Germany and Italy. He has also staged solo exhibitions in Poland and abroad, and published a number of albums, including Polish Gypsies (1982) and The Last. Contemporary Polish Jews (1993).
Since 2006, the Czesław Miłosz Award for Contributions to U.S.-Polish Understanding has been presented by the U.S. Embassy in Poland. Previous laureates include film director Andrzej Wajda (2007), the poets Adam Zagajewski (2008) and Julia Hartwig (2009), and playwright Janusz Glowacki (2011). It is one of three awards granted annually by the embassy. The others are the Jan Karski Freedom Award and the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Award for Public Service.
Source: PAP, edited. SW, 5 July 2013
Translation: Alena Aniskiewicz 05.07.2013