Living and working in Poland, Zofia Rydet was an active photographer for 45 years before her death in 1997. She came to be known for her surrealist imagery and metaphorical photocollages and also, later, for her social documentary work. Toward the end of the 1970s Rydet embarked on a momentual documentary project, titled Sociological Record, which she continued through the final years of her life. In a spirit similar to August Sander’s methodical documentation of different social and professional types in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century, Rydet photographed people in their homes in various regions of Poland, often in poor villages.

In terms of composition, Rydet forgoes the rigorous uniformity that has often characterized typological photographic projects—most explicitly in the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, although Sander also created a sense of regularity by closely and centrally framing his subjects. In Rydet’s case, the distance between the camera and the sitters, and where they are situated within the room, vary from image to image. What remains constant is the pose of her subjects, who sit calmly and proudly with their hands on their knees as this stranger enters their home to photograph them. As art historian Urszula Czartoryska observes, “the people seen within the frames of her photographs show no signs of discomfort. Their postures manifest their moral identification with their biographies and environment that apparently includes no secret zones, no undercurrent of panic.”

01 - 17.07. 2011
The Arc of Realism
Zofia Rydet 1911-1997

5 May 2011 was the 100th birthday anniversary of Zofia Rydet. It is a perfect occasion for reminding and commemorating this great Polish photographer. The exhibition is our attempt to interpret her enormous creative output. By building up on the tension linking the two most important stages of her artistic work, two great realisms – the surrealism of photomontages and pure realism of The Sociological Record – we want to show the thematic unity which dominates over the diversity of formal choices.

The documentary film about Zofia Rydet and her artistic output, made by her friend Andrzej Rozycki who is also a well known polish artist, film director and an art theoretician. Made with sensibility and artistic creativity, the film shows, in the simple and pure form, the enormous output of Zofia Rydet. Her own commentary gives an additional value to this film. Awarded on the international film festivals in Lodz and Cracow.

Directed by Andrzej Rozycki | Photography by Stefan Nitoslawski | 36mm B&W film | Lodz 1990 | About 30'