For decades, Czesław Siegieda’s photographs remained — for important reasons — hidden away in the artist’s drawers. Only a generational shift eventually made it possible for these remarkable images to be published, with their rediscovery and promotion supported by figures including Martin Parr and Mark Powell. Polska Britannica will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in Poland, while Siegieda himself will visit the country for the first time in more than fifty years for the opening at Instytut Fotografii Fort on 24 June at 7pm.
The photographs show wedding receptions in parish halls, cigarettes smoked outside church after Mass, men dancing the oberek, communions and long afternoons spent drinking tea. Nearby are children asleep on sofa beds, lace tablecloths and holy pictures in gilded frames hanging on the walls. The faces look strangely familiar — scenes that could easily be mistaken for post-war Poland, except that everything is unfolding in the English Midlands of the 1970s. “Apart from the occasional Ford Cortina, it is hard to believe these photographs were even taken in Britain,” wrote Martin Parr. “People often told us that traditions in Poland were no longer as strong as they were in our community. That life in Poland no longer looked like this,” says the photographer himself, Czesław Siegieda, whose images seem suspended between two worlds.
Siegieda photographed a world that was largely invisible at the time to British society: the Polish diaspora formed by people who had arrived in Britain alongside Anders’ Army and, after the war, chose not to return to communist Poland. He himself came from such a family. He spent the first four years of his life in the barracks of a displaced persons camp for Poles in Leicestershire. Later, his school friends had no idea that he spoke another language at home. He grew up suspended between two realities.
Siegieda’s photographs were shown in Poland for the first time during last year’s Fotofestiwal – International Festival of Photography in Łódź, with support from the British Council as part of the UK/Poland Season 2025. The exhibition at Instytut Fotografii Fort will be the artist’s first solo presentation in the country and the first opportunity to meet him in Poland in more than half a century. Signed copies of Polska Britannica will be available from the institute bookshop.
Czesław Siegieda, Polska Britannica
Curated by Marta Szymańska and Tim Smith in collaboration with Instytut Fotografii Fort
24 June – 6 September 2026
Instytut Fotografii Fort
Fort Mokotów
ul. Władysława Szpilmana 6, building 2
Warsaw
Opening with the artist present: 24 June 2026, 7pm
Partners: Fotofestiwal – International Festival of Photography in Łódź, Bradford Culture Company
Honorary patronage: British Council
IFF Partners: Fort Mokotów, White Stone Development