Instalment Eight

A Captured Gaze
The Photography Collection

Photographs preserved in the collections from the 19th and early 20th centuries form a visual archive of the era in which Kórnik’s heritage was taking shape. Studio portraits, family photographs, views of residences, and snapshots from journeys are not merely illustrations of the past. They are a means of preserving and interpreting it.

The camera lens gives history a face, but at the same time it composes it. Figures are arranged in specific poses, in controlled lighting, usually serious, captured in the moment when the flash lamp was at work.

Photographs did not determine the course of events. They did, however, immortalize those who made decisions. At the time, they were records of a fleeting moment — today, they allow us to see the world in which the Library was created and the Castle restored. They anchor in reality the processes and events that remain hidden from our eyes in documents and letters.

A

I 102
Jadwiga i Władysław Zamoyscy z córką Marią, lata 60. XIX w.
fot. Titus Albites, Paryż

B

I 7911
Robotnicy siedzący na drewnianych palach wydobytych z fundamentów zamkowych, 1947-1948

C

I 2
Tytus Działyński
Zakład Fotograficzny
A. i F. Zeuchnera, Poznań
D

III 2947
Zamek po rozbiórce babińca, 1939
fot. Józefa Orańska