Zofia Chomętowska - Creativity

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  Polesie

  The landscape of the eastern borderlands of Poland provided inspiration for Zofia Chometowska’s earliest photographs, it was there that the artist made her iconic and often-reproduced works such as “The Laundress”. This “exotic Poland”, as the author termed it, was a popular subject among the photographers of the interwar period, Chometowska however was perhaps the only one able to capture the diversity of themes and multiplicity of histories found in the region.
  Though the works do not make up a consistent series, a common theme binds them strongly, making it possible to present them jointly. All photographs were taken in the 1940s, in locations personally close to Chometowska – such as in the vicinity of Prochonsk (the family estate of the Drucki-Lubecki) or Dobroslawki (the estate of the Chometowski family).

  
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  Warsaw Accuses!

  Chometowska did not abandon photography after the end of the Second World War. A large part of the existing substantial collection of prints, showing the ruins and the reconstruction of Warsaw, was included in the first post-war exhibition at Warsaw’s National Museum titled “Warsaw Accuses!” (May-June 1945). This landmark presentation, which later became an international traveling show, was a strong statement (in the political sense also) about the condition of the Polish capital after the war. Excepting Tadeusz Przypkowski, Chometowska was the author of the largest number of prints. The photographic section of the show also featured works by Maria Chrzaszczowa, and, in its subsequent installments, by Edward Falkowski.
  Chometowska’s photographs taken between 1945-1946 and titled “Warsaw Lives” testify to the unusual development of the author’s documentary talent and the attempt at moving away from easy emotions or the banal. The complete series of photographs is currently in the collection of Warsaw Historical Museum.