Zofia Rydet’s stories about the world of feelings and imagination. Exhibition of Zofia Rydet's works in the Museum of Photography in Krakow.

“Zofia Rydet.The World of Feelings and Imagination” in the Museum of Photography in Krakow (MuFo) is an invitation to the world of experiences and a deeply intimate and personal story, filled with subjective reflections on universal notions and meanings. Rydet’s socially engaged work holds an undoubtedly crucial place in the history of Polish photography. 

Photographs and photomontages

The artist was born shortly before World War I. She spent her childhood and youth in Stanisławów in the Eastern Borderlands. She was also associated with Rabka and later on Bytom. Her initial, still amateur interest in photography was sparked by the passion of her brother, Tadeusz Rydet. He was a photographer documenting mainly folk traditions, folklore, and mountain landscapes (for instance in the series about Huculszczyzna). Her career as a professional artist and photographer started flourishing in the 1950s after she moved to the Silesian region and joined the Photographers’ Association in Gliwice. One of her first exhibitions, “Mały człowiek” (“Little Man”), presented in the Krzywe Koło Gallery in Warsaw (1961) was a huge success. The main subject of the presented photographs was children from around the world. Rydet drew inspiration from the experimental photography of Édouard Boubat and Henri Cartier-Bresson, not to mention the paintings by artists of Polish modernism, especially the artworks of Stanisław Wyspiański (e.g. “Macierzyństwo”/ “Motherhood”).

Another series “Czas przemijania” (“Time of Passing”) touched on the subject of human loneliness, the inevitability of growing old and old age as such. It had a more existential and philosophical character. In her work, Rydet tried to examine causality and the quintessence of reality, the passing of time, and the unavoidability of things following one another throughout an individual’s life. Works from this series – as well as others such as “Kontrasty” (“Contrasts”), “Oczekiwania” (“Expectations”), “Samotność starości” (“Loneliness of Old Age”), and several editions of the series “Medytacje” (“Meditations”) – were created in the spirit of the Italian neorealism. They accentuate the experiences and feelings of ordinary people which then acquire a unique, timeless quality representative of a certain generation.

Since the late 1970s, Rydet has been working on her magnum opus, namely “Zapis socjologiczny” (“Sociological Record”) – a monumental series of photographs created for almost two decades. It comprised approximately 20 thousand photographs of people in their houses surrounded by everyday objects. Not only did this project document regular life in Poland in the late 20th century, but it also initiated a discussion about identity, transience, and people’s relations with space and surroundings. The artist herself used to say that a house is the mirror of a soul, and the objects people surround themselves with can tell us more about them than words. Rydet avoided staging and directing her subjects and their homes. The models were portrayed in their natural poses, which highlights the authenticity and honest intentions with which she approached her work as a documentary photographer. As a result, until this day “Sociological Record” is considered a work of art that shows the stifling reality of the transformation period in Poland and on top of that engages the viewer, invites them to cramped rooms, and forces them to think about the time when it was created.

A sort of encapsulation of Zofia Rydet’s practice was the self-referential series “Suita śląska” (“Silesian Suite”) created throughout the 1980s and 1990s that included the photomontages and collages of her previous works in the style of folk sacral imagery. Through her “Silesian” photographs, Rydet tried to capture the cultural identity of the Silesian people and region undergoing major industrial and social changes, which also had a special place in the artist’s life.

The World of Feelings and Imagination

At the heart of the series “Świat uczuć i wyobraźni” (“The World of Feelings and Imagination”) is the man – the cycle of life beginning not only from his biological birth, but also viewed as the moment of becoming, shaping, a person gripped by obsessions from an early age, feelings with the entire spectrum of emotions, feelings of solitude and desires. Finally, it is a series about fear from which only love can save us, the tragedy of passing time, and the anxiety caused by things independent from us, inevitable and ultimate. This is a kind of paraphrase of the words the artist used to describe the series of photographs she has been creating since the 1960s, which we can view at the exhibition at Krakow’s MuFo until May 4, 2025.

The exposition itself showcases a lesser-known and lyrical side of the photographer’s practice. It concentrates on photo collages made from precisely curated prints that were re-photographed to attain surrealist compositions out of this world. The series was inspired by her earlier work titled “Obsesje” (“Obsessions”) which the artist created during a difficult period of her life, after the death of her mother. In the museum space, there are about a hundred black and white photographs and photomontages in various formats divided by the artist herself into dozens of autonomous thematic sections. Once again, Zofia Rydet explores universal personal human experiences (“Narodziny” / “Birth”; “Macierzyństwo” / “Motherhood”; “Przemiany” / “Transformations”) and touches upon what her entire generation had to go through, namely war and annihilation. Her clear and understandable language remains accessible to today’s viewers. The focus is on everyday life and what one might miss at first glance – the detail. The artist delves into the meanders of the human psyche and emotions, masterfully portraying things one might fail to notice straight away. As we learn from the description of one of the sections, Zofia Rydet had to catalogue and label many of her earlier photographs while working on this exhibit, hence the paper envelope clippings displayed on the exhibit. What is more, the show features a number of fascinating collages in layouts preceding the final shot.

A viewer is guided through the exhibition by the meticulously prepared curator’s statement. It explains the phenomenon of the photographer and places her in the annals of photography as well as in the international context. It also offers definitions of some hermetic photography terms. Overall, the statement complements this rich story about the artistic practice and style of Rydet.

According to the description, this series was also originally presented in the form of a so-called diaporama, a slide projection accompanied by a soundtrack. The first exhibition of these works took place most likely in the mid-1970s. Karol Hordziej, a curator, preserved the original division of exposition prepared by the artist herself and utilised a soundtrack as well which was composed by the duo of Antonina Nowacka and Sofie Birch and produced in collaboration with the Unsound Festival. The exhibition is an in-depth look at Polish documentary and experimental photography and is undoubtedly a starting point for further research into Rydet’s work.

“The influence of Rydet on the history of photography in Poland is immeasurable – her works keep inspiring generations of artists, highlighting the importance of universal human experiences…”

The artistic practice of Zofia Rydet is simultaneously unique and universal. Her photographs not only represent phenomenal sociological accounts but also extraordinary artistic merit. The influence of Rydet on the history of photography in Poland is immeasurable – her works keep inspiring generations of artists, highlighting the importance of universal human experiences, such as love, respect, hope, a sense of empathy, and mindfulness, as well as fear, anxiety, confusion, sadness, suffering and their impressions in art. Today, she is considered one of the greatest figures in the history of Polish photography. Rydet was fascinated by the passing of time – she believed that photography is the medium that could stop time and save what was fleeting from oblivion. Her photographs are the bridge across generational rifts.

The exhibition “Zofia Rydet. The World of Feelings and Imagination” in the Museum of Photography in Krakow offers an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the artist’s practice, her masterful technique, and unique approach to the medium as a timeless tool for expressing emotions and describing imagination. Visitors of “The World of Feelings and Imagination” might be surprised by the displayed pieces that are often composed of her earlier photographs and differ from her documentary work in other series. These surrealist collages address some of the most important subjects. According to the artist, the series is about “humans threatened from the moment of birth, about their feelings and desires, about loneliness, fear that only love can save them from, and about the dread of extermination and the tragedy of time passing.” The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Zofia Rydet Foundation, which cultivates her legacy and spreads knowledge about the artist’s work.