Archiwum Pięknej Miłości
Archive of Beautiful Love

Summary/Abstract: Archiwum Pięknej Miłości (Archive of Beautiful Love) is part of the tradition of the archaeology of photography initiated by Jerzy Lewczyński, rescuing from oblivion old wedding photographs, magnificent artisan works on which time has left its imprint. The nucleus for the beginning of the project was the Gothic Madonna with a Rose, famous for its miraculous properties and known also as Our Lady of Beautiful Love, featured on the main altar of the cathedral in Bydgoszcz. According to the historian of art Professor Tadeusz Dąbrowski this painting is regarded to be one of the magnificent Marian images in Poland. Its extraordinary history inspired quests for wedding photographs of the residents of Bydgoszcz. Owing to conservation and protection it became possible to save from oblivion an invaluable collection of photographs and preserve it for future generations. The Archiwum Pięknej Miłości album published upon the occasion of the project’s finale is simultaneously a journey across the history of photography and its conventions: from studio portraits, silver gelatin black-and-white copies, wedding portraits based on hand-coloured photographs of the bride and groom – so-called monidła – and hand-coloured photographs all the way to the first colour photographs of the 1970s. The photographs are accompanied by micro-histories, unusual love stories involving ordinary people who wished to share them despite the fact that these were not always cases of “beautiful love”. More about the project on www.fotografistka.pl.

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