Famous for his sharp tongue, this conservative writer was also a keen amateur photographer.
Born in 1896 in St. Petersburg, Mackiewicz professed conservative views, considered himself a monarchist, and sympathised with Jozef Pilsudski. After Pilsudski’s death, Mackiewicz criticised the authorities and was sent to a detention camp for political prisoners, charged with “undermining the defensive morale of the Polish people”. He emigrated from Poland on September 18, 1939, the day after the Soviet invasion. At first, he went to the Republic of Lithuania, then moved to England the year after and spent the next seventeen years there. Years later, he recalled:
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I came to England, which was till fighting, from France, which had capitulated. My attitude towards the English was like that of other Polish people, i.e. rather enthusiastic.
Author
Londyniszcze, 1957
Mackiewicz was a photographer with no artistic background. In his photographs, he captured London’s residents, city landscapes, and women. Women of various ages would pose for him in elegant furs, flash him flirtatious smiles, or freeze in ambiguous postures like the photograph above. Mackiewicz shot most of his sessions outdoors, although some of his other negatives recorded the outcome of more intimate indoor shoots. He once summed up his attitude to women as:
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I can’t live without women, just like I can’t live without cigarettes.
After Mackiewicz’s death in 1966, his daughter, Aleksandra Niemczykowa, took charge of his negatives. Almost 1,000 photographs, taken between 1945 and 1956, had survived from his emigration period. Renowned for his sharp tongue, the writer never saw the fruits of his amateur sessions printed, but presumably photography made it much easier for him to meet new people.
Originally written in Polish, translated by AG, edited by MB, Dec 2018