In the 1980s, an exhibition of my portraits of Poles traveled to prestigious museums in Milan, Munich, Baden-Baden, Oslo, and Iyväskyl in Finland, concluding in 1988 at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. As part of this tour, in 1984, the exhibition was presented at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem.

Therefore, when the "Passage Oost Europa" Cultural Festival was held in Arnhem, the museum's director, Liesebeth Brandt Corstius, and her husband, Kees Broos, invited me to take portraits of the festival participants. I hung the portraits in the Festival Center and the Schouwburg auditorium, respectively. In the fall of 1990, I spent two weeks photographing Russians, East Germans, Poles, and the Dutch. Painters, actresses and directors, composers and conductors, jazz musicians, historians, writers, sculptors, architects, and Festival staff.

It was then, thanks to a Dutch commission, that a widely published portrait of Jerzy Grzegorzewski, who attended the Festival with the Studio Theatre, was created.

Poland lacks such cultural festivals; they lost out to Coca-Cola and beer parties, so the idea for this remake as a souvenir was born. Thanks to Monika Ney's invitation, I am showing these photos in Poland 25 years later. Today, in the voracious capitalism of Polish reality, apart from celebrities, who do not interest me, portraits of Poles seem unnecessary, and thus the memory of who we truly are is fading.

With modest earnings, young photographers cannot afford a studio. At a more advanced stage of development, a portraitist's own workspace is essential. Of the many talented young artists, none has managed to secure a photography studio. As a result, no one is continuing my work. I fight with all my might to preserve my 40-year legacy and continue my work, but in the long run, in a dramatic struggle with heartless administrators, I stand no chance. During sleepless nights, I realize that after my death, everything I've created will be thrown away.

Krzysztof Gierałtowski
Warsaw, September 5, 2015

Krzysztof Gierałtowski – photographer, member of the Association of Polish Visual Artists (ZPAF) and the ZAiKS Society of Authors. He has received scholarships from the Polish and Dutch Ministries of Culture, the Government of the French Republic, the United States Information Agency, and the Foundation for the Advancement of European Intellectuals (Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne). In 2007, the Polish Minister of Culture awarded Gierałtowski the Gloria Artis silver medal, and in 2011, the artist received the C.K. Norwid, and in 2014, the President of the Republic of Poland awarded him the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs awarded him the Bene Merito Honorary Badge for his work strengthening Poland's position on the international stage.

His works are included in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris, the National Library in Copenhagen, the Museum of Art and Industry in Hamburg, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, the Museum of the History of Photography in Krakow, the Museum of Art in Łódź, the National Museums in Warsaw, Wrocław, and Poznań, as well as in numerous private collections.