In Her Own Image / Gathering Time / Fotodziennik

The works of four acclaimed Polish photographers—Zofia Rydet, Anna Beata Bohdziewicz, Teresa Gierzyńska and Aneta Grzeszykowska—are presented at Northern Ireland’s foremost photography institution, Belfast Exposed. The photographs are presented across three exhibitions—In Her Own Image, Gathering Time and Photo-Diary—open to the public from October 2 to December 18, 2025. Although created in different times and historical contexts, the artists’ works share a common feature: the use of the camera as a tool of resistance and a medium for storytelling. Curated by Karolina Ziębińska & Deirdre Robb, the exhibitions highlight the unique contribution of Polish female artists to the development of contemporary photography, while also opening a wider discussion on the role of women in art and society.  

The project is part of the ongoing UK/Poland Season 2025 cultural programme, co-organised by the British Council, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and the Polish Cultural Institute in London, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. 

In Her Own Image is a combination of Teresa Gierzyńska's pioneering practice and Aneta Grzeszykowska's radical statements. The resulting dialogue between generations of Polish female artists addresses the theme of the body, especially the female body. Gierzyńska, who has been creating since the 1970s, transformed private spaces of domestic life into performance arenas, using self-portraiture to question identity, intimacy, and the roles imposed on women. Grzeszykowska, who belongs to the post-1989 transformation generation, addresses similar themes, drawing on expressive staging and the category of the uncanny. Creating series using realistic representations of herself—made of pigskin or silicone—she reflects on the female body, its sexuality, its aging, and its place in culture, as well as the myths and clichés on which its perception depends. 

The exhibition Zofia Rydet: Gathering Time presents Rydet’s monumental “Sociological Record”—an extraordinary photographic archive documenting life in the Polish countryside during a period of rapid social change. Thousands of portraits and interior photographs form both an anthropological record and a tribute to deeply human experience, preserving disappearing customs and the spaces of a vanishing world.  

Zofia Rydet’s Sociological Record is also on display from October 10 at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, in the artist’s first major solo exhibition in the United Kingdom. This monumental work is considered one of the most significant achievements of 20th-century Polish photography. It has previously been exhibited at prestigious venues such as MoMA and the International Center of Photography in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The exhibition is organised in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Zofia Rydet Foundation and will run until February 22, 2026.  

The third exhibition focuses on Anna Beata Bohdziewicz’s Photo-Diary, a project the artist began in the early 1980s. Blending personal reflection with sharp socio-political commentary, Bohdziewicz turns her photographic diary into a poignant record of private and public life in late communism and post-communist Poland.   

UK/Poland Season 2025 is a cultural programme of unprecedented scale, featuring several dozen events across multiple cities in both Poland and the UK. Running until November 2025, the season marks a new chapter in bilateral cooperation, revitalising cultural dialogue and strengthening existing ties between the two countries. For residents of both countries, it offers a unique opportunity to explore the most exciting artistic phenomena from both sides—encompassing film, theatre, visual arts, design, and music. In Poland, the events are organised by the British Council, while in the UK—by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Polish Cultural Institute, and the British Council. The organisation of the Season in the UK and Northern Ireland is supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland.