Showing at The Photographersâ Gallery, as part of the UK/Poland Season 2025, Sociological Record is a landmark photographic project undertaken by Polish photographer
Zofia Rydet.
The series is a comprehensive documentary portrait of Polish domestic life which spans decades, eras, regions and cultures.
Starting in 1978, aged 67 years old, Zofia Rydet (1911-1997) set out on a mammoth task to
photograph the inside of âeveryâ Polish household. Motivated by a desire to capture the
ordinary, unsung populations, particularly of the countryside â but also covering towns and
cities â Rydet would become increasingly obsessed with her mission to record the cultures
and people that she sought out.
Rydet cut an unlikely figure on her field trips to different regions, a diminutive woman travelling
by bus or with the help of friends who could drive her. Approaching households unannounced,
she would knock and warmly introduce herself, asking those living there if they would like to
take part in her project. Using a newly acquired wide angle lens and flash, Rydet was able to
capture often darkened interiors of homes and their inhabitants in great detail. Asking her
sitters not to smile and look straight ahead into the camera lens, her subjects are posed in
their homes, rich in personal histories.
As the series progressed, Rydet would identify different categories within the Sociological
Record such as âWomen on Doorstepsâ, âProfessionsâ, âThe Illâ, âRoad Signsâ, âWindowsâ, âHousesâ
and âTelevisionsâ. She would also come to identify more philosophical themes such as
âPresenceâ â noting the omniscience of the Polish Pope John Paul IIâs image (inaugurated the
same year Rydet started the Record in 1978) within Polish households. Others included âThe
Myth of Photographyâ focusing on the central position and significance of family photographs
within the home, such as traditional, hand-painted studio photographs of married couples in
homes with little or no other decoration.
Through the cumulative interactions with her sitters, sometimes returning to households
more than once over time, Rydet identified a change in her own personal and artistic journey
and the role photography played within it. Creating over 20,000 images, many of which by the
end of the project were never printed â Sociological Record is a monumental project and one
of the most important achievements in 20th century Polish photography.
Rydet said of her hopes for the work: âEven if they donât publish it⊠this will remain, not art
perhaps, but a document of the times.â Rydet continued working on the Record until 1990,
seven years before she died aged 86 years old.
This is the first substantial exhibition of Zofia Rydetâs Sociological Record in the UK. It focuses
on the small proportion of rare prints she made from the series in her home darkroom,
including the significant âPeople in Interiorsâ works, and other sub-series such as âWomen on
Doorstepsâ and âPresenceâ. It will also feature ephemera from Rydetâs archives and original
publications. Polish filmmaker Andrzej RĂłĆŒyckiâs 1989 documentary film about Rydet,
âEndlessly Distant Roadsâ, as well as Polish photographer Anna Beata Bohdziewiczâs
documentary portraits of Rydet at work will also be on show.
Zofia Rydet: Sociological Record is part of the UK/Poland Season 2025. It is produced by The
Photographersâ Gallery in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (co-financed by the
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage), Poland, and the Zofia Rydet Foundation.
A new English catalogue will accompany the exhibition featuring texts by Zofia Rydet and 100
images from the Sociological Record series. Edited by co-curators of the exhibition, Clare
Grafik and Karol Hordziej, image edit with the collaboration of Wojciech Nowicki. Produced by
Lola Paprocki and designed by Brian Kanagaki / Kanagaki Studio. Co-published by The
Photographersâ Gallery and Palm* Studios, with support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
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