Photographic portraits in Polish cinema: keepsakes, traces, props

One of the more interesting phenomena in Polish cinematography is the use of the ‘photograph in film’ effect. Such a device enables the doubling of scenes and exhibiting of various photographic themes. A picture within a picture is an intermingling of moving and static image. Such constructions have an influence on various ways of storytelling, changes of timelines and spaces, as well as unexpected twists in a work of film. The selected photographic portraits in film, of Teresa Kociełło and Bogumił Niechcic (Noce i dnie [Nights and Days]), Władysław Niwiński (Polskie drogi [The Passions of Poland]), Barbara Lawinówna and Łukasz Zbożny (Dom [The House]), are connected by the tradition of family photography, black and white aesthetic, as well as by their links to socio-historical events (the outbreak of World War I, World War II, post-war effects of the Warsaw Uprising). The diverse interpretations of the theme of photography, however, set various perspectives in motion: a psychological one (Sigmund Freud), anthropological one (Hans Belting), and, most importantly, those relating to the theory and aesthetics of photography (Roland Barthes, François Soulages, Marianna Michałowska). Photographic portraits in film also refer to different cultural, historical and social contexts (photography as memento, photography as trace, photography as prop), as well as presenting a complex mechanism of how the images of human memory function (remembering – reconstructing, fading – erasing).