PRZYCZYNEK DO DZIEJÓW WŁADYSŁAWY SPIŻEWSKIEJ, WYEMANCYPOWANEJ PIONIERKI BYDGOSKIEJ FOTOGRAFII ZAWODOWEJ
A CONTRIBUTION TO WŁADYSŁAWA SPIŻEWSKA – A PIONEER OF FEMALE PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY IN BYDGOSZCZ

Summary/Abstract: In partitioned Poland, as in Western Europe and America, women were involved in photography soon after its invention, although their number in the 19th century was small. At the turn of the twentieth century, women worked mainly in family-owned photographic businesses and only a few established their own studios. Władysława Spiżewska was one such exception. Spiżewska was the first Polish woman who opened her own photographic studio in 1917/1918 in Bydgoszcz, then known to be part of Prussia. The main focus of this article is to tell the story of this heroic woman, whose history and achievements have been utterly forgotten. Even though photography was an emancipated medium, women were seldom chronicled in the traditional canon of art history written by men. This study results from extensive research conducted by the author on Bydgoszcz female photographers before the Second World War. The article presents a brief history of the Margraf family, from which Spiżewska originated. It also describes the peculiarity of the Bydgoszcz market of photographic services during the turbulent years of gaining independence in the 1920s, as well as photographic techniques popular at that time. The author of the article takes the reader through the life of Władysława Spiżewska – from birth, two marriages (including one with her student twenty years her junior), the difficulties related to the running of the studio, through to the closing of her business in Bydgoszcz and emigrating to South America.

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