Gdynia - Photograph by H. Poddębski. General view. 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 “tourist photography,” and a longtime member of the Polish Tourist 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 historian, in the 1920s and 1930s he undertook numerous regional exploration trips throughout the territory 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, scholarly books, tourist guides, newspapers, as well as on postcards and posters. Poddębski’s artistic ambitions were evident through his participation in national and international photography exhibitions, where he won awards. World War II brought an end to Poddębski’s career as a photographer. He spent the occupation in Warsaw, active in the underground resistance. During the Warsaw Uprising, he was deported to German camps, where he died.
