We invite you to the closing of Chris Niedenthal’s exhibition!
Rybnik is not only the first city in Silesia but also in the south of the country where the master of reportage photography – Chris Niedenthal – presented his life’s work, which is also a document of the past 50 years of Polish history. On the 9th of March, 2024, thanks to collaboration with the House of Meetings with History, the Rzeczna Art Gallery was able to open this spectacular exhibition containing over 200 works. On August 10th its finale will take place with the personal attendance of the photograph’s author.
As the exhibition curators – Anna Brzezińska and Katarzyna Puchalska – write: “Chris Niedenthal is a photographer-legend. He documented the activity of two future Nobel Peace Prize winners: Lech Wałęsa and Michaił Gorbaczow. He is the winner of World Press Photo, he worked with some of the most important world magazines. He was the only foreign reporter who immortalized the first days of the strike at the Stocznia in Gdańsk. Ever since he started taking photos, he was most interested in reportage photography. He preferred to document rather than create a new reality.
The legitimation of a foreign correspondent allowed him to take photos that few could take at the time. Starting in 1978, his partnership with “Newsweek”, and later with “Time” was a huge step in his career, also giving him unlimited access to Western colorful films of high quality. He knew the language, owned a car, had a British passport and could leave Poland anytime, but didn’t. Thanks to this decision there is an extraordinary journalist documentary of Poland and Eastern European countries in the 70s and 80s in his archive.
He preserved it mostly on diapositives, commonly called slides. Because of this difficult to work with material, which had to be carefully irradiated, the photos were printed in colorful magazines. He would send undeveloped material to the editorial office in envelopes with detailed descriptions. The laboratory technician from the office would develop the diapositive or negative, and the photoeditor would pick the frames for printing. The effects of his work could be seen by Niedenthal only in the printed magazine issue, which was sent to him by the redaction, and sometimes due to the post office’s leisureness, he had to wait for very long.
Although he worked for prestigious world magazines, he always emphasized that he learned taking professional photos from Polish photographers, who became masters to him in the profession. ”
The ones who were on the author’s personal guided tour during Museum Night on March 10th or May 18th at the Rzeczna Art Gallery could experience the truth in words above for themselves. The Master is an extraordinarily humble, warm person. I believe that the presence of His exhibition in our city deserves great recognition, which is best to show in person. On Saturday, August 10th at 6 PM at the Rzeczna Art Gallery.
We invite you to join us!
We invite you to join us on August 10th, Saturday, 6 PM.
Admission tickets: normal – 10 zł / reduced – 5 zł to purchase at the Gallery’s register or through the Biletyna system online.