The Photography Room

Images of War in Nineteenth-Century Photography

The Eleventh Instalment of the Photography Room
12 February–13 April 2025

Curator of the Instalment: Danuta Jackiewicz

Wars, which have tormented people of every continent and every century, were among significant subjects recorded for posterity by the nascent medium of photography. It started with daguerreotypes—singular images on silver-plated sheets—which immortalized the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848 and the 1848 events of the Springtime of the Peoples in Paris. Then, due to the spread of the negative-positive wet-collodion process, the documentation of any aspect of life, including the despicable ritual of war, became the norm. This exhibition presents the photographic images of war that have been preserved in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.

An unknown collector owned photographs from the Crimean War, waged in 1853–1856 by Russia against Turkey, which was allied with France, Great Britain and the Kingdom of Sardinia. For the first time in history, newspaper war stories were not only illustrated with drawings, but also with photographs. James Robertson, a British photographer working in Istanbul, took a series of stills depicting Sevastopol, a Russian naval base on the Black Sea, which was destroyed during a 349-day siege. Deserted and ruined buildings and fortifications with the remnants of armaments such as cannons, projectiles and obstacles constitute a poignant landscape after battle. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 30 March 1856, which shaped a new arrangement of political powers in Europe.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia was presented in works by two German photographers: Wilhelm Cronenberg of Darmstadt and German Wolf of Constance. Both creators documented the destruction of Strasbourg as a result of its bombardment by the Germans during a siege that lasted for over a month. The compositions are dominated by the ruins of historical buildings and monuments in order to demonstrate the tragedy of armed conflict. France’s defeat led to the collapse of its Empire and the final step in the unification of Germany: the birth of the German Empire. Alsace and Lorraine, including Strasbourg, were annexed to the territory of the new German state.

One of the most tragic conflicts in human history—the First World War, also called the Great War—erupted on 28 July 1914. This exhibition features photographs of Kalisz bombarded by the Germans for several weeks starting as early as 4 August. Unsigned photographs attest to the immensity of the devastation in the central part of town, including its medieval Main Market Square. The barbaric assault by the Germans obliterated both the buildings and their inhabitants. Kalisz was among the cities that suffered the greatest losses during the conflict, which lasted until 1918.

The only armed revolt by Poles documented in photographs was the January Uprising, which took place in the lands of partitioned Poland (1863–1864). Because the uneven fight with the Russian occupant relied of guerilla warfare, no battle was photographed. Instead, photographers took many portraits of the insurgents, including ordinary fighters and their commanders. The subject is introduced by photographs of drawings from the series Wojna (War) by Artur Grottger, with a universal message added by the artist’s references to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The photographs of Grottger’s drawings by Ludwig Angerer of Vienna symbolically correspond to the entire presentation of the images of war at the current exhibition.

Danuta Jackiewicz