“I have never been keen on sports and hardly participated in any competitions,“ - says Chris Niedenthal. –  “Sport was obligatory at school. So I pretended that I played football. During a match I even managed to break my mate’s leg. It was really amazing as at that moment he was running behind me! While playing rugby I never hurt anyone only because, knowing the consequences, I kept myself as far from catching the ball as possible. What even I liked was rowing, and though I wanted to paddle alone, I was put into eights. Fortunately at competitions I was always in reserve so I didn’t have to present my skills or reveal lack of them. So the idea of presenting my photos connected with sports seemed really strange. However, while looking over my archive, I found there pictures showing something that could be associated with the sport in a wider sense of the word.“

 

At the exhibition, that will be a photographic walk from the 1970s to the first years of the 2000s, one will see pictures of the most famous Polish sportsmen and celebrities in everyday situations as well as while training and competing. There will also be photos showing the world around the sports, emanating the atmosphere and the political climate of those years.

Chris Niedenthal (b.1950) | based in Warsaw (Poland) | studied at the London College of Printing | came to Poland for some months from his home town London in 1973 and remained until today | Polish correspondent for Newsweek (until 1984) | Time contracted photographer for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (from 1985) | winner of the World Press Photo in the Portraits category (1986) | for years connected with the German weekly Der Spiegel | his photographs have repeatedly been presented at collective and individual exhibitions | author of photo books Chris Niedenthal. Selected Photographs 1973-1989 (BOSZ, 2014), Polish People’s Republic. Props (BOSZ, 2004), 13/12. Poland of the Martial Law (Edipresse, 2006), In Your Face (Edition Fototapeta, 2011), and autobiography Chris Niedenthal. Profession: Photographer (Marginesy, 2011).