Institute of National Remembrance

Institute of National Remembrance https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/466,Exhibition-quotAn-American-in-Warsaw-The-Polish-capital-through-the-l ens-of-Juli.html 2021-09-24, 13:28 16.02.2011 Exhibition "An American in Warsaw. The Polish capital through the lens of Julien Bryan 1936-74" - Warsaw, 19 November 2010 to 13 March 2011

From 19 November 2010 to 13 March 2011 in History Meeting House (Warsaw, 20 Karowa Street) a multimedia exhibition was opened "An American in Warsaw. The Polish capital through the lens of Julien Bryan 1936-74".

Julien Bryan is a remarkable ﬁgure. Not only because he was the only foreign photographer in Warsaw in September 1939. The ﬁrst war picture he had taken was when he worked as an ambulance driver at the front of Verdun. Most likely, the dramatic images seen there had shaped his unique photography. In the 30s Julien Bryan also went to Russia and Germany. In his snapshots he documented the birth and consolidation of the two totalitarian systems, which made it clear to him that the next world war is inevitable. In September 1939 he made moving pictures of the besieged Warsaw.

The multimedia exhibition consists of mostly unknown pictures, press releases, newsreels and radio recordings. Materials relate primarily to Warsaw. Apart from the already cited images from WWII the exhibition also presents photographs of the post-war trip to the Poland. During these visits Bryan managed to ﬁnd several protagonists of his war images. The photographs which resulted from the visits show the story about the fate of these people. Materials from Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia from the 30s complement the Warsaw thread. Images shown in the exhibition come from the archives of the IPN (Julien Bryan collection in Warsaw).

Organizers: History Meeting House, Institute of National Remembrance.

For more information about the exhibition and the accompanying events please see here.