Walery Maliszewski (1836–1885) – nie tylko fotograf Krakowa

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WALERY MALISZEWSKI (1836–1885) – SO MUCH MORE THAN A PHOTOGRAPHER OF KRAKÓW

Walery Maliszewski (b. 27 January 1836 in Kraków, d. 30 May 1885 also in Kraków) was the son of Tomasz Maliszewski and Elżbieta Maliszewska, née Taroni. He started off as a confectioner, and then, probably in the early 1860s, his career shifted to photography. According to literature on the subject, Maliszewski worked as a daguerreotyper from 1848 onward, which is, obviously, misinformation. Another date which has been marked as the beginning of his photographic activity – 1856 – does not seem to be confirmed either. Many questions still remain unclear, such as his association with the “J. Maliszewski & Co” studio which operated in Kraków in the 1860s. Walery Maliszewski ran his atelier at 166 Nowy Świat St (currently 9 Straszewskiego St) from the second half of the 1860s at the latest. It was probably in 1870 that he moved his establishment to a new location at 430 Mały Rynek (currently at No. 7), where he co-ran his studio for a short period of time with a business partner by the name of Marceli Rzymkowski. By 1871 he was presumably running the studio solely under his own name, and by 1880 at the latest he relocated his business to 228 Szewska St (currently No 21). From 1869 onward he struggled to open a branch of his studio in Krynica; while this attempt proved unsuccessful, he had more luck in Iwonicz where his new studio operated probably from the 1870s to 1885. Maliszewski used the photographic process which was typical of his time, i.e. collodion negatives from which he produced albumen prints. He signed his works in the manner which was very common at that time, i.e. by lithographing his name, address and some ornaments at the back of the prints, as well as using other inscriptions and stamps. His workshop is most famous for photographs of Kraków which he executed mostly in the form of stereoscopic cards and in the carte de visite format. Maliszewski photographed Kraków’s Old Town, Wawel Castle, and, less frequently, Kazimierz or Zwierzyniec. Apart from typical views representing individual buildings, he would often also execute wider frames showing larger portions of the cityscape, such as a street, or a square. Some of the frames prove that capturing picturesqueness was perhaps more important to him than the strictly documentary qualities. Maliszewski also created portraits, as well as the so-called ‘ethnic (folk) types’ presenting the diversity of ethnic groups inhabiting the Kraków area, the Lemkos, the Rusyns, and the Romani. His oeuvre also included the photographic reproductions of Maksymilian Cercha’s works which were supposed to be published in the form of a picture album in 1868 – a project which, apparently, was never brought to fruition. Other creative projects included the photographic calendars for the years 1867 and 1868 designed as photomontages of a plethora of prints and pictures of Kraków. Photographs from Maliszewski’s studio were also used to compile similarly arranged collages: Pamiątka z Krakowa [Souvenir from Kraków] and Pamiątka z Krynicy [Souvenir from Krynica]. Apart from taking and developing pictures, Maliszewski also organized exhibitions of photographs brought from abroad, mostly those presenting sights from World’s Fairs. The first of these exhibitions was held in Kraków at the turn of 1867 and the beginning of 1868, and the last one took place in 1878 in Warsaw.