Zachęta National Gallery of Art

curators: Izabela Wojciechowska, Rene Maisner, Anna Tomczak

In the 17th year after the publication of Imperium we will have had the opportunity to see an exhibition of the photographs that emerged in the years 1989–1991 and that were the fruit of Ryszard Kapuściński's travels around the republics of the former USSR. These photographs up until now have not been exposed except for the few that found their way into the album From the World. They were found two years ago in Kapuściński's private album. From the manner in which the material was segregated and the selection of the photographs one can presume that he was thinking about an exhibition about Imperium. Today we are realising this idea by presenting 50 black and white photographs selected from over a hundred. These photographs are not simply journalistic photographs from journeys nor material illustrating Imperium. They are rather an outstanding emotional photo-report showing people, places and events in collision with the universal world of Kapuściński. On this occasion into this world comes the image to which it is up to us to add words, because the artist never wrote commentaries to his photographs. In this selection are also to be found photographs from the first journey after forty years that he made to his native Pińsk, which additionally serve to give these photographs a personal note.