Warsaw - Photograph by H. Poddębski. Professors' Colony, A. Ponikowski’s Villa. Dimensions: 17 x 12 cm
Henryk Poddębski (1890, Chrząstków – 1945, Vaihingen concentration camp) was one of the most outstanding pre-war Polish photographers, a representative of so-called “local history photography,” and a long-time member of the Polish Local History Society. From 1900, he lived in Warsaw, where he studied at the Commercial School of the Warsaw Merchants’ Association. During World War I, he documented the appearance of the capital and its surroundings. In 1917, he assumed the position of secretary of the Photography Commission of the Polish Tourist Society (PTK). Together with Mieczysław Orłowicz, a geographer and regional expert, in the 1920s and 1930s he undertook numerous regional exploration trips throughout the territories of the Second Polish Republic, during which he documented the most important city landmarks, rural landscapes, and people’s daily lives. In 1925, the photographer opened his own studio in Warsaw, specializing in regional photography. His photographs were published in albums, academic books, travel guides, the press, as well as on postcards and posters. Poddębski’s artistic ambitions were evident in his participation in national and international photography exhibitions, where he won awards. World War II brought Poddębski’s photographic career to an end. He spent the occupation in Warsaw, working in the underground resistance. During the Warsaw Uprising, he was deported to German camps, where he died.
