Kamila Dworniczak

Kamila Dworniczak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art Theory, where she teaches courses on the history and theory of photography, the history of contemporary art in Poland, the history of art history and the methodology of art history. She completed her PhD thesis on the reception of the exhibition The Family of Man in Poland (2014) at the Institute of Art History, Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), under the supervision of Dr hab. Małgorzata Kitowska-Łysiak, Professor at KUL, and Professor Ryszard Kasperowicz. She was awarded the Rev. Prof. Szczęsny Dettloff Prize for her doctoral thesis. Between 2011 and 2013, she carried out an NCN PRELUDIUM grant, and since 2024 she has been leading the NCN OPUS research project Alternative Forms of Spirituality in Polish Art (1945–1989) – developed in collaboration with Dr Justyna Balisz-Schmelz. She was also a member of research teams carrying out grants from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education – Polish Art Criticism of the 20th and 21st Centuries (2012–2017)andThe History of Exhibitions in Zachęta – Central Bureau of Art Exhibitions, 1949–1970 (2016–2017).

Her research focuses primarily on the history and theory of photography in the Polish People’s Republic, the relationship between photography and the other visual arts, and intermedia practices in contemporary art. She is drawn to an approach to the history of photography that derives from the social history of art and the principles of the so-called ‘relational turn’. She also examines photographic phenomena within the framework of complex discourses concerning vision, cognition and social modernisation in post-war Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, her research interests have also come to include phenomena of alternative spirituality in art. As part of the project Alternative Forms of Spirituality in Polish Art (1945–1989), she is investigating the significance of alternative spirituality for understanding post-war realism, themes relating to photography and irrationality, and the connections between word and image. Her interests also include international artistic relations – most recently those between Czechoslovakia and Poland, which she had the opportunity to explore during a residency in Prague as part of the Junior Scholar in Residence Programme at the German Historical Institute (2025).

She also occasionally engages in art criticism and curatorship. Between 2012 and 2017, she served as editor-in-chief of the Polish Culture Portal O.pl. In 2023 and 2024, together with Maria Franecka, she co-curated exhibitions on Polish humanist photography at the Czytelnia Sztuki in Gliwice.

Selected Publications

Books

  • Rodzina człowiecza. Recepcja wystawy ‘The Family of Man’ w Polsce a humanistyczny paradygmat fotografii [Rodzina człowiecza. Reception of the exhibition ‘The Family of Man’ in Poland and the humanistic paradigm of photography], University of Warsaw Press, Warszawa 2021, pp. 344, https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323550334.

Edited volumes and anthologies of texts

  • Enchanted Socialist Modernity. Art of Central and Eastern Europe (1945-1989) in the Face of Alternative Spirituality, with Justyna Balisz-Schmelz, Aries Book Series, vol. 41, Brill, Leiden 2025, pp. 565, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004747470.
  • Gliwicki felieton intymny. Zofii Rydet i Jerzego Lewczyńskiego relacje z Alfredem Ligockim, Urszulą Czartoryską i Jerzym Buszą [Gliwice Intimate Column. Zofia Rydet and Jerzy Lewczyński’s Relationships with Alfred Ligocki, Urszula Czartoryska and Jerzy Busza], with Maria Franecka, Museum in Gliwice – Czytelnia Sztuki, Gliwice 2024, pp. 259 – book awarded by the Marshal of the Silesian Province in the category of best museum event of the year 2024 in the publications category.
  • Poza kadrem. Fotografia w Lublinie 1839-1939 [Outside the Frame. Photography in Lublin 1839-1939], “Scriptores” Series, Vol. 48, Ośrodek Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN, Lublin 2019, pp. 508.
  • Urszula Czartoryska – Listy do Rodziców (1951-1957), Teksty (1954-1960) [Urszula Czartoryska – Letters to Parents (1951-1957), Articles (1954-1960)], z Małgorzatą Kitowską-Łysiak, Scientific Society of the Catholic University of Lublin Press, Lublin 2010, pp. 401.

Articles in books and journals

  • Between Magical Marxism and Heresy: The Progressive Spirituality of Natalia LL, “Widok. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture” 2025, no. 44 [online], https://www.pismowidok.org/en/archive/44witches-wisdom/between-magical-marxism-and-heresy.
  • The Decisive Moment of Contemplation. Photography as a Spiritual Practice in the Work of Andrzej Strumiłło, [in:] Enchanted Socialist Modernity. Art of Central and Eastern Europe (1945-1989) in the Face of Alternative Spirituality, Aries Book Series, vol. 41, Brill, Leiden 2025, p. 251-274, https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004747470.
  • Dusza „poniekąd akademicka”. O Małgorzacie Kitowskiej-Łysiak i sztuce zainfekowanej życiem [A ‘Somewhat Academic’ Soul. On Małgorzata Kitowska-Łysiak and Art Infused with Life], „Schulz/Forum” 2024, no. 23-24, p. 131-140, https://doi.org/10.26881/sf.2024.23-24.08.
  • ‘Świat’ – ‘Poland’ – ‘Ameryka’. The United States in the Pages of Illustrated Magazines during the “Polish Thaw” in the Context of Polish-American Cultural Relations, [in:] American Art of the 20th and 21st Centuries and Polish-American Artistic Relations, eds. Krzysztof Z. Cieszkowski, Katarzyna Cytlak, Małgorzata Geron, Jerzy Malinowski & Filip Pręgowski, Polish Institute of World Art Studies, Warsaw – Toruń 2024, p. 137-146.
  • Myself as a medium, medium jako gra. Fotografia według Małgorzaty Potockiej [Myself as a Medium, Medium as a Game. Photography According to Małgorzata Potocka], [w:] Małgorzata Potocka, Arton Foundation, Warsaw 2023, p. 51-82.
  • Fotografia jako medium więziotwórcze/Photography as a Bonding Medium, [w:] Poszerzanie wspólnoty. Fotografia humanistyczna ze zbiorów Muzeum w Gliwicach/Expanding the Community. Humanist Photography from the Collection of the Museum in Gliwice, Museum in Gliwice, Gliwice 2023, p. 15-20.
  • Kłopotliwe powiększenie, czyli historia sztuki widziana poprzez fotografię [The Troublesome Enlargement, or the Art History seen through Photography], [w:] Aby Warburg. Początek drogi [Aby Warburg. The Beginning of the Journey], ed. R. Kasperowicz, Słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk 2023, p. 84-108.
  • Nienaukowe? Historie sztuki w perspektywie polskiej biografiki o artystkach [Unscientific? Art History from the Perspective of Polish Biographies of Female Artists], „Miejsce. Studia nad sztuką i architekturą polską XX i XXI wieku” 2023, no. 9 [online], https://doi.org/10.48285/ASPWAW.29564158.MCE.2023.9.5.
  • Fotografia według Urszuli Czartoryskiej: pomiędzy teorią, krytyką i historią medium [Photography             According to Urszula Czartoryska: Between Theory, Criticism and the History of the Medium], [in:] Akademickie przestrzenie fotografii [Academic Spaces of Photography], eds. J. Klupś, M. Michałowska, M. Szymanowicz, Art University of Poznań Press, Poznań 2022, p. 32-41.
  • Fotografia reportażowa a strategie oporu. I Ogólnopolski Przegląd Fotografii Socjologicznej (1980)             [Reportage Photography and Strategies of Resistance. The First All-Poland Review of Sociological Photography (1980)], “Sztuka i Dokumentacja” 2021, no. 25, p. 97-108, https://doi.org/10.32020/ARTandDOC/25/2021/11.
  • Defining Reality. Photography and the Surrealist Concept of the Image in Poland in the 1940s, “Ikonotheka” 2020, vol. 30, p. 113-134, https://doi.org/10.31338/2657-6015ik.30.6, https://ikonotheka.pl/issues/30-1/defining-reality-photography-and-the-surrealist-concept-of-the-image-in-poland-in-the-1940s.
  • Krytyka fotograficzna Urszuli Czartoryskiej [Photography Criticism of Urszula Czartoryska], [in:] Krytyka artystyczna kobiet [Art Criticism of Women], ed. J. Sosnowska, B. Łazarz, Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 2019, p. 336-354.
  • Zwei Thesen über den Menschen. Fotografie in Polen und das humanistische Paradigma, [in:] Erweitung des Horizonts. Fotoreportage in Polen im 20. Jahrhundert, eds. I. Kurz, R. Makarska, S. Schahadat, M. Wach, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, p. 153-175.
  • Fotografia a narodziny awangardy w Polsce [Photography and the Birth of the Avant-garde in Poland], “Rocznik Historia Sztuki” 2018, vol. XLIII, p. 39-63.
  • Opór Innego. O Zapisie socjologicznym Zofii Rydet raz jeszcze [Resistance of the Other. Again on Zofia Rydet’s Sociological Record], [in:] Regiony wyobraźni. Peryferyjność w kulturze XIX I XX wieku [Regions of Imagination. Peripherality in the Culture of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries], ed. M. Lachowski, Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, Art Historians Association, Warsaw 2017, p. 193-214.
  • The Family of Man w polskiej krytyce artystycznej: socrealistyczny ideał czy ikona nowoczesności? [The Family of Man in Polish Art Criticism: A Socialist Realist Ideal or an Icon of Modernity?], [in:] Socrealizmy i modernizacje [Social Realisms and Modernizations], eds. A. Sumorok, T. Załuski, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Łódź 2017, p. 353-381.
  • The Family of Man in Poland. An Exhibition as a Democratic Space?, “Ikonotheka” 2016, vol. 26, p. 213-238, https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0010.1679, https://ikonotheka.pl/pl/numery/26/the-family-of-man-in-poland-an-exhibition-as-a-democratic-space.  
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