W³adys³aw Serwatovski - Krzysztof Giera³towski's Portrait Photography
I have been observing, exploring and frequently admiring Krzysztof Giera³towski's artistic achievements for thirty years now. It was in the seventies when I noticed his first artistic photographs in Perspektywy weekly and later on in ITD. I have also been watching carefully his more and more perfect and vast exhibitions in the most important European museums since the eighties. Nearly all of them were accompanied by meticulously edited catalogues with the perennial motive of a portrait. An exceptional portrait. The one, which I have always seen as the means of communication, which is communication in itself. Giera³towski's portraits may be called conversation portraits or mutual understanding portraits. They sometimes suggest and sometimes impose and ask questions. What is photography? Is a photographic portrait a psychological portrait? Does Giera³towski show the body and the face or the body and the soul of his models? Are attention to detail and realism of minor importance in good portraits? Do artistic portraits convey only the most important and the obvious features? Or those concealed and inconspicious? Unnoticed? Can photo-portraits be grotesque? Does the lense deform or does it perfect the model, the protagonist? Should the model be accompanied by characteristic props? What is the true photography? Can a "kitch" portrait be a work of art? Can colour and black-and-white photographs compete?
Dozens of questions. Various answers. Thoughts, associations and imaginings that are in harmony but simultaneously exclude one another.
The more important question, however, I ask after looking at Giera³towski's photographed characters is about comparing photography to painting.
In the PWN Encyclopaedia photography proves to be nowadays more comprehensively and widely described than painting. The authors of the largest macropaedia in Poland following the world trends mention and describe eight kinds of photography while only seven kind are mentioned for painting. Portraits have only five aspects of the kind. Encyclopaedia defines: artistic or esthetising, digital, underwater, press, infrared, staged, aerial and finally social photographs. It gives definitions of: painting as such, historical, monumental, oil, metaphysical, Pompeian, tabular painting. The some source mentions: portrait as such, Faium, coffin, memory and Sarmatian portrait.
Basing on the above information as well as thorough knowledge of Krzysztof Giera³towski's work I presume he could be called the author of any kind of photographs. he, however, clearly specialises in artistic, digital, press, staged and social photography. Within the widest definition of painting Giera³towski practices painting as such, historical and metaphysical painting.
We find out from publications on Krzysztof Giera³towski that he created several thousands of portraits. Each of his exhibitions is, however, a careful selection of portraits. He often limits his exhibits to only several hundred. My estimates show that Giera³towski chooses to present only around 5 per cent of his work to the public. Such exquisite selection of work is a sign of the artist's perfection, his sense of proportion and class as well as the courage to introduce just a little bit of sensation, scandal and sex in order to spice up the marketing policy of his beloved work.
I value great attention to sometimes important and sometimes ordinary detail always essential from the esthetic point of view however, in Giera³towski's portrait photographs. He often avoids any strange effects in the model. The chosen person is the axis and the dominant of his work, even if it seems that the model has been totally ripped of his corporal sensuality. I respect and accept his skilful reduction of composition i.e. getting rid of the photogenic or non-photogenic character of the model as well as of any of the signs of his social or professional standing. it is not important to be literal or detailed, or maybe it is but we don't see it, we just think about it?
I am not writing about any precise portrait. The one that has been sometimes used for a small social group or, when ordered by a sophisticated art manager, in the noise of advertising. The early portrait photographs, or in other words, very old ones, or recent photographs, those taken in the 2001 and 2002, ususally in colour, revealing completely new sensitivity. When I lokk at the big format photographs ready to be exhibited or the small ones to be reproduced in a catalogue I always have the same feeling. I know and I feel that the portrait is the result of a harmonious conversation between Krzysztof Giera³towski and his model. I cannot hear it but I can see and remember it for a long time thanks to the photographic picture.
Krzysztof Giera³towski
1956-60 Medical academy.
1961-64 £ódŸ Film School.
1966-67 AGPOL Foreign Trade Publications - the beginnings of advertising.
1967-72 Ty i ja monthly - fashion and portrait.
1968-69 Clothes production Corporation - the main specialist for advertising.
1969-70 Freelance photographer - Switzerland - Elle, Harpers Bazaar, Advertising Agency GGK.
1971-72 Perspektywy weekly - a photo reporter.
1974-75 Advertising Agency F. Boltz GWA Hamburg - photographic consultant.
1977-78 - Razem weekly - portraits.
1978-81 ITD weekly - portraitist.
1982-89 Freelance photographer - Germany, The Netherlands, Poland. Exhibitions in important European Museums.
From 1982 works on the collection of 80 thousand negatives entitled "The Poles, Contemporary Portraits".
1991-93 6x9 Fotografia Quarterla - member of the Artistic Board.
1992 Polish Press Agency chairman's advisor.
1994 Giera³towski Studio - portraits and photographs of people in action for the press and advertising agencies leo Burnett, Lintas, E/B/D, Publicis FCB...
1994-98 Twój styl - long-term cooperation.
1996 Studio and Gallery activities.
1997-99 Pioneer and juror of a photographic competition Opportunity (Szansa)/Foto and Great Opportunity / Magazine-Gazeta Wyborcza.
1999 Krzysztof Giera³towski - Portraits, an album published by WAIF, awarded by PTWK.
2000 Gallery/Studio gets prizees and awards for the concept and publication of photographic calendars.
Competitions: Zlote Orly and Vidical 2000.
Promotion album "Poland always near" bmb Promotions Warsaw.
2001 ORLEN S.A. publishes a Giera³towski's portrait calendar
Individual Exhibitions (selection)
1963 "Photographic Compostitions 63" Journalists Club Wroc³aw.
1979 Printed Faces, Foto Medium art, Wroc³aw.
1983 Ritratti Polacchi, SICOF 83, Milano. Polen Poträts, Rheinischces Landesmuseum Bonn.
1984 Polen in portreten, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem. Portraits, PPS Galerie Hamburg. Menschen aus Polen, Staatliche Kunsthalle, baden-Baden. Krzysztof Giera³towski Fotografier, Sonia Henie Onstad Artcenter, Oslo.
1985 Puolalaisia Muotokuvia, Alvar aalto.Museo, iyvaskyla.
1987 New Portraits, Brama Królewska, Szczecin.
1988 Subjective Portraits, Rennaissance Cave of the Royal Castle, Warsaw.
1990 Portraits, Dum panu z Kunstatu, Brno.
1992 Porträtsfotografie, IFA Galerie Berlin, Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle.
1996 My Grandfather's Cemetery, Norex Gallery, Warsaw.
1997 Inventory, from Realism towards Utopia..., Giera³towski Gallery/Studio, Warsaw.
1999 Tests in Colour, Mid-pomerania Museum Slupsk. Kulturschaffende Artists from East Berlin VIII-X,
1989 Giera³towski Gallery/Studio, Warsaw.
2000 Polen Porträts, Literaturhaus, international Book Fair, Frankfurt. Culture Creators National Theatre, Congres of Polish Culture, Warsaw.
2001 The Local Colour, Bayer Gallery, Warsaw. X, National Museum, Warsaw. Kolorit, Polska Institutet, Stockholm.
2002 In Giera³towski's Eyes, Photography History Museum, Kraków. Muzeum Sztuki £ódŸ. The Pomerania princes Castle Szczecin. Vienna Art Center. Mesiac fotografie, Bratislava. Cagdas Sanatlar Merkezi, Ankara.
2003 The City Hall Museum, Wroclaw. Museum fur Zeigenossische Kunst, Fotografie un Plakat, Cottbus. Stadtmuseum Munster.