Erazm Ciołek

ERAZM CIOŁEK – born in 1937 in Łódź, died on 13 November 2012 in Warsaw. Photographic artist, member of the Polish Association of Photographic Artists. Journalist, photo reporter, member of the Polish Journalists Association. Between 1965 and 1970, he worked for the Polish Press Agency and the Central Photographic Agency, and between 1971 and 1973, he was an employee of the “Polityka” weekly. In 1970 he established lasting ties with the artistic circles. In March 1968, he photographed students protesting in the Krakowskie Przedmieście street, in the vicinity of the University of Warsaw. Between 1980 and 1992, he completely devoted his professional career to documenting the activities of Solidarity. In August 1980, along with Stefan Starczewski, an opposition activist, he went to the striking Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. They were allowed to enter the shipyard’s premises thanks to a guarantee offered by Jacek Kuroń. Ciołek was free to document the course of the strike and the signing of the August Agreement. Following the end of the strike, in September 1980, his photographs from the Shipyard strike were displayed publically for the first time (inter alia, in the Warsaw headquarters of the Polish Journalists Association). Ciołek was also the first Polish photographer to depict the murky world of drug addicts. He spent some time living with them, and in November 1981 his “Narkomani” (Drug Addicts) exhibition was presented in Warsaw, drawing attention to the existence of this phenomenon in the Peoples Republic of Poland. Between 1981 and 1989, he photographed and participated in the struggle of the people of Solidarity’s underground. He won the trust of Solidarity and participated, very often as the only photographer, in the meetings at which the Polish statehood was being forged. He was an active member of the Independent Culture Movement, displayed his works in illegal exhibitions and published them in underground press. Ciołek photographed numerous events, concerts and uncensored exhibitions of independent artists of the 1980s. Between 1984 and 1989, he was a member of the editorial team of the underground “Przegląd Wiadomości Agencyjnych” magazine. Erazm Ciołek was the co-founder of the photography service of Niezależna Oficyna Wydawnicza NOWA. Appointed by rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko his personal photographer, he participated, without any restrictions, in the rich religious, and, in particular, social life of the parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Warsaw. He photographed the Round Table talks (6 February - 4 April 1989) as a reporter of the Citizens’ Committee to Leach Wałęsa. Prior to the parliamentary elections of 4 June 1989, Erazm Ciołek (along with Maciej Goliszewski) took a famous series of election poster shots. The shots presented Solidarity’s MP candidates standing next to Lech Wałęsa. In the 1990s, Ciołek returned to artistic photography.