Edward Hartwig 4

Edward Hartwig was a Polish photographer. Hartwig was born 1909 in Moscow, where his father had his photographic studio. When Poland regained its sovereignty in 1918 Hartwig’s family moved to Lublin. First in the 20s, inspired by Jan Bulhak, Edward Hartwig was mostly photographing landscapes in a mysterious and romantic way. It is easy to see his interest in paintings and the connection to Misonne’s romantic impressionism. This gave him a fame of a ”photographer of mists” and a photographer-impressionist. Later as a student of professor Rudolf Kopitz at the Vienna Institute of Graphics young Hartwig, encouraged by having access to the latest photographic equipment, materials and modern technology, started to use new technique and new forms. Kopitz’s school proclaimed the association of photography and graphic art, which for Hartwig was a way to combine his passion – art with a necessary working toll- photography. From now on his workshop included experiments in the darkroom: over-exposure, double exposure, manipulations with the optics and light, the employment of mirrors. The time he spent in Vienna was a milestone in his artistic biography. It finally shaped his artistic attitude and views. Further stages of his work involved combining graphics with realistic photography and since the 70s experiments with colour and abstract photography. That is when he created series of colourful, nearly abstract compositions, representations of city landscape details. Critics usually stress the artist’s universality, a significant place that he occupies in the history of Polish photography and a deep influence he has been for a few generations of photographers. One of the world’s most famous Polish photographers, considered a versatile artist, combining photography and graphic work, equally fascinated by the landscape and man, theatrical photography, architecture and detail. Edward Hartwig died in Warsaw in 2003 leaving such beautiful albums as “Photography”, “My earth” and “Photographic Variations”.