Ilona Szwarc, "Kayla" from the "American Girls" series, 2012, courtesy of the artist
The year kicked off with the ground-breaking announcement that Anna Bedyńska and Ilona Szwarc were among the winners of the World Press Photo competition. Bedyńska's dreamy portrait of Zuzia, a girl afflicted with albinism, won the young photographer third place in the People - Staged Portraits Single category. Szwarc won third place in the People - Observed Portraits Single category for her portrait of a Boston girl posing with her "American Doll". The win ushered in a wave of interest in both photographers' work, with exhibitions and commissions coming in from their native Poland and abroad.
Anna Bedyńska, "Zuzia", courtesy of World Press Phot
The 'discovery of the year' was easily Karolina Jonderko's prize-winning series titled Lost, depicting the empty rooms of missing persons, and self-portraits of Jonderko wearing her deceased mother's clothing. Jonderko comes from the south of Poland. This year the 28-year-old was awarded first place in the Grand Press Photo competition (in the People category) and the Photo Annual Award 2013. She was also among the finalists of the International Photography Awards, her works exhibited at the 20th edition of the Noorderlicht Photofestival in Holland. Her works are formally straightforward from an aesthetic perspective, yet the emotions loaded within them impact the spectator in a meaningful way.
Karolina Jonderko, Napo Images, from the "Lost",series, courtesy of Grand Press Photo 2013
Renata Dąbrowska took a real stab at answering the question of 'What's in a name' with her well-noted series of portraits of women all connected by a single detail - they, too, are all named Renata Dąbrowska. Originally from the Tricity area in the north, Dąbrowska located her nominal doppelgangers all over the country. Agnieszka Rayss, on the other hand, went east to photograph Belarus' women war veterans. At home in Poland, she paid a poetic tribute to theVistula River that runs through the heart of the nation. Rayss is among the photographers of Sputnik Photos who set out to explore the reality behind 'the last dictatorship in Europe' and capture images of that enigmatic nation and its people. The images were published in a collection titled Stand By / За Беларусь.
As Poland and the world discovered the fresh talents of the young generation of women photographers this year, some also looked back to the pioneers of the genre. The legendary lives and images of Maria Chrząszczowa, Zofia Chomętowska were celebrated by the Archaeology of Photography Foundation gallery in Warsaw, reviving their historic footage of a battered capital getting back on its feet just after World War 2.