Planned
17th Edition of the Photography Cabinet / Józef Czechowicz (1818–1888) – Photographer of Vilnius
16 September – 13 December 2026
Curator: Danuta Jackiewicz
Vilnius will be the subject of an exhibition in the Photography Cabinet for the first time. We will explore views of the city from the 1870s, captured through the sensitive eye of Józef Czechowicz’s camera. The first Vilnius landscape photographer, as Jan Bułhak called him, masterfully recorded the city’s Baroque architecture, its hills submerged in lush greenery and the picturesque River Viliya. The exhibition will also shed light on the little-known biography of the photographer, whose creative path led from Kyiv, through Vitebsk, to Vilnius.
18th Edition of the Photography Cabinet / Konrad Brandel: Visionary & Documentarian
16 December 2026 – 21 March 2027
Curator: Magdalena Bajbor
Konrad Brandel was an exceptionally active and creative personality among professional Polish photographers in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th. He threw himself passionately into this new field of image-making and brought a brilliant ability to harness the power of the modern medium. This exhibition will include the oldest photographs in the world taken during a free balloon flight – light-sensitive images captured from a previously inaccessible perspective, showing views of Warsaw recorded by Brandel in the summer of 1865. Shortly after this spectacular achievement, the photographer arranged a self-portrait with his camera in the balloon’s gondola, an image he would later make frequent use of in advertising photomontages for his studio.
Brandel documented the city tirelessly – the changes taking place in Warsaw’s architecture, significant events, and the everyday lives of its inhabitants — always placing emphasis on considered composition and the aesthetic quality of the frame. In 1883, he constructed a photo-revolver: a portable, hand-held camera that enabled him to capture unposed street scenes, and which brought him fame as an outstanding chronicler of life in the capital. His pioneering work allows us to call him the father of Polish photojournalism.
There is no doubt that Konrad Brandel was a visionary ahead of his time.