Wojciech Plewiński

The National Museum in Kraków hosted a retrospective of photographs by Wojciech Plewiński in the summer of 2011. That year, Plewiński's Przekrój covers were also one of the main themes in the documentary Political Dress, produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Author: Agnieszka Le Nart based on information from the National Museum in Kraków and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. March 2011.

He was taking pictures for many Polish theatres, including: Theater Scena STU, Ludowy Theatre and Juliusz Słowacki Theatre. He was also connected with Piwnica pod Baranami. Lives in Kraków today. Known for his 'kitten' photographs of women in the popular Przekrój weekly in the 1960s, as well as his celebrity portraits, reportages, artistic nudes and magazine covers.

Throughout the years Plewiński shot nearly seven hundred plays. He also photographed musicians, authors, painters and reportages, sometimes in very close quarters, such as the Jazz Camping, 1959, a meeting of the creme de la creme of polish jazz musicians and fans. Skiing, jam sessions and crazy parties, including a Pajama Party based on Roman Polanski's idea where Polański and Andrzej Wojciechowski dance on a table - in their pajamas of course. Documented are the greatest performances of Konrad Swinarski, Jerzy Jarocki, Andrzej Wajda, Jerzy Grzegorzewski. Krystian Lupa's opening staging. We see Zakopane's theatre, to which Plewiński was closely attached from the very beginning and the perverse couple Krzysztof Globisz and Anna Dymna in Gyubal Wahazar. He also made a recording of a unique happening by Tadeusz Kantor titled The Dividing Line, which made history in December 1965.

In 1959 he appeared in Krzysztof Zanussi's short film Cement i słowa (The Cement and Words), which action was set in Nowa Huta.

Wojciech Plewiński's academic background was founded in architecture - in 1955 he received his diploma from the Kraków Polytechnic University. He studied sculpture at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, but photography quickly became his passion and he abandoned all other undertakings. He began taking photographs in late 1956. Barbara Hoff from the Przekrój weekly, who later became a famous fashion designer, engaged him as a photographer with the magazine and he continued to work with the magazine for over four decades. He managed to shoot nearly five hundred of the famous 'kitten' shots of beautiful girls for the front cover. A few years later he took up theatre photography. He ended up developing a long-lasting relationship with the Stary Teatr in Kraków but offers came knocking on his doors from all sides.

Wojciech Plewiński (born 31 August 1928 in Warsaw) is a Polish photographer. His photos were published on over five hundred „Przekrój” magazine covers. He is a member of FIAP and ZPAF.