Andrzej Świetlik Archive

A Master of Portrait Photography

Andrzej Świetlik was one of the most important figures in Polish photography at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. By consistently focusing on the human subject, he developed a distinctive canon of portraiture that combined psychological insight with formal discipline. His photographs – predominantly black and white, pared down, and based on a precise relationship between light and gaze – quickly became his unmistakable signature.

Born in 1951 in Złotów, he died in 2025 in Warsaw. Świetlik portrayed leading figures from the worlds of culture, music, literature, media, and politics. Among those who appeared before his lens were Kora, Grzegorz Ciechowski, Maryla Rodowicz, Edyta Geppert, Czesław Niemen, Stanisław Soyka, Justyna Steczkowska, as well as Ryszard Kapuściński, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Agnieszka Osiecka, Anda Rottenberg, Jacek Kuroń, Lech Kaczyński, Donald Tusk, Leszek Balcerowicz, Wojciech Smarzowski, Wojciech Mann, Krzysztof Materna, Monika Olejnik, and Tomasz Lis, alongside international stars such as John Cleese, Martha Argerich, and Danny DeVito. He is also the author of iconic album covers for the bands Maanam and Republika, which have left a lasting mark on the history of Polish visual culture.

Świetlik built his portraits through dialogue – the strength of his work lay in his ability to establish a relationship with his subjects and draw out the tension between their public role and private presence. He maintained long-standing friendships with many of the people he photographed; for him, photography was a form of encounter, not merely an act of depiction.

From 1979 onward, he was a co-founder of the legendary Łódź Kaliska group, one of the leading collectives of the Polish neo-avant-garde. The group operated through irony, pastiche, and strategies of pop-cultural appropriation, conducting a critical dialogue with the mythology of high art and socio-political reality. As Marek Janiak aptly put it: “Andrzej Świetlik added beauty to Łódź Kaliska.” During the period of martial law, he was also associated with the countercultural movement Kultura Zrzuty and the independent magazine TANGO – a milieu functioning outside the official institutional circuit.

Alongside his artistic practice, he also worked in advertising photography and was involved in projects at the intersection of art and social communication, collaborating, among others, with the Rak’n’Roll Foundation and the Integracja Foundation. For many years he also served as an educator and mentor – he was a member of the Artistic Council of the Association of Polish Art Photographers, actively supporting young artists and shaping the standards of professional photography in Poland.

http://andrzejswietlik.pl/

Photographs by Andrzej Świetlik are available through Agencja Forum

All photographs presented in the archive are the property of the author or the designated rights holders and are protected by copyright law. Use of the images in any form (publication, reproduction, distribution) requires prior permission from the rights holder.

For licensing inquiries or other questions, please contact us by email at biuro@fiff.org.pl.

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The online archive is part of the project “Digital Photography Center Fort: Digital Transformation of the Resources and Offer of the Fort Institute of Photography”, implemented under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO), financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, as part of investment A2.5.1 “Program to Support Entities in the Cultural and Creative Sectors to Stimulate Their Development.”