A meeting from the series ‘NIH Library: Let's Talk’.

"There is a well-known saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Is this really true, or is it just a figure of speech? A thousand words is about three pages of A4 typescript, which takes about 7-8 minutes to read. How often do we spend that much time describing a single photograph? What information can we actually glean from a photograph and how can we do so? There is no single answer. The word “photograph” itself has many meanings. It can refer to a single paper print or an entire medium. It can refer to a daguerreotype or a digital record. It can describe a holiday souvenir or a work of art. In each case, many different technological, social, cultural, political and other factors must be taken into account – the list goes on.

When considering ‘what photography says’, we refer to the 5W and H formula known from journalism, which means that an article should answer the questions: what? who? when? where? why? and how? Based on more and less well-known historical photographs – taken by both anonymous amateurs and famous professionals – we will examine how photographs answer each of these questions. We will consider how they represent time and space, how they depict people and events. We will see how context changes their meaning, how they function in exhibitions and photographic books. However, this will not be an academic lecture, but rather a handful of reflections in which the experience of working with archival photographs is combined with a fascination with contemporary documentary and artistic photography.

Tomasz Stempowski

Born in 1971, historian and archivist at the Institute of National Remembrance, author and co-author of articles and books, including: Piaszczyste drogi karpatczyków. Photographs by Captain Karol Angerman from 1940‒1944, Collection of photographs of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Polish roads through Switzerland. The Fate of Soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division 1940–1945 in Photographs from the Collections of the Polish Museum in Rapperswil, The Siege of Warsaw in the Photographs of Julien Bryan, The Career of SS-Oberscharführer Hermann Baltruschat 1939–1943. Photographic album of an Einsatzgruppe and Geheime Staatspolizei officer in the Polish territories incorporated into the Reich, Law in film. He runs a blog about historical photography – fototekst.pl.

Venue: Library of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Al. Ujazdowskie 39, Warsaw

free admission