Marian Schmidt

• Name — Marian Schmidt • Birthplace — Żyrardów • Died — 7 March 2018 • Place of death — Kraków • Occupation — artist photographer • Website — http: www.wsfoto.art.pl/

Marian Schmidt was born in Żyrardów shortly before the end of World War II. In 1946 - together with his family - he migrated to France and later to Venezuela - where he spent his childhood and attended high school. Later he graduated from University of California, Berkeley, and gained his PhD degree in mathematics from Brandeis University. In 1974, he returned to Poland, where he worked for the magazines: Kino, ITD, Perspektywy, Szpilki, Teatr, Zwierciadło. In 1975 he worked as assistant to Polish film director Jerzy Kawalerowicz, as part of the film team Kadr. In the late 1970s he worked for some foreign photographic agencies: Black Star in New York, USA and Rapho in Paris. In 1980 he moved to Paris, and later - by mid-1990s - again to Poland. For numerous years he served as director and lecturer at the Warsaw School of Photography and Graphic Design and also as lecturer at the University of Fine Arts in Poznań and National Film School in Łódź - where in 2002 he received post-doctoral degree (habilitation) in artistic photography. Marian Schmidt died on 7 March 2018 in Kraków. On 12 March he was buried at the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery at Okopowa street.

Schmidt photographed since 1957. He was an author and co-author of numerous photographic exhibitions of individual and collective artists. His own photographies were presented in numerous places in the World such as New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Zurich, but also in Poland: Kraków, Gdańsk, Poznań, Szczecin, Warszawa and also in his city of birth: Żyrardów. Special place in his art work was dedicated to humanistic photography, portrait as metaphore in a landscape. In 1995 he was accepted as member of the Warsaw District group of Polish Union of Artist Photographers (membership ID number 706). His art works - photografies are in the collections of Bibliotheque National in Paris, Bibliotheques de l'Histoire Contemporainne in Paris, Musee de la Photographie in Charleroi (Belgium), Museum Folkwang in Essen (Germany) and in National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland.