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72 AT L A N T I CA
ICELANDa
Niedenthal graduated with a degree in photogra-
phy from the London College of Printing in 1972,
and after his studies went to Poland to stay for a
few months. He has remained there ever since.
As a photojournalist he photographed what
made Poland so different from its western cous-
ins, the bits and pieces that made up everyday
life, forming a vivid documentation of the way
Polish people lived under a Communist regime.
More importantly, he witnessed with his camera
the history of a changing Poland, a different
country now, of course, but Chris Niedenthal’s
documentation of the years 1969-1989 is his tes-
tament to a nation’s struggle to never submit to
military force nor political ideology.
Harpa Björnsdóttir: When you were a boy
staying with your family in Poland, what subjects
did you photograph?
Chris Niedenthal: I came to Poland for the
first time when I was 13, and what does a kid
of that age photograph? Family, friends, views,
pets. Nothing remarkable. Those first holidays
in Poland were important though, for another
reason: I discovered the darkroom.
One of my uncles in Warsaw had an enlarger
and all the paraphernalia needed to make black
and white enlargements. He lived in a typical
small flat in a post-war concrete block, with a
tiny bathroom. When we returned from our
holidays on the Baltic coast, he blacked out the
bathroom, laid out all the trays and chemicals,
put the enlarger on a board covering the bath
– and transported me into the magical world of
the darkroom. I was hooked.
HB: You rarely seem to take a picture without
a person in it – are people and their lives in soci-
ety your main source of interest?
CN: As a photojournalist I would say, yes,
people are everything. In my photographs, even
Twenty Years in Poland
If you’re here in November, stop by the Reykjavík Museum of Photography to see Chris Niedenthal’s exhi-
bition “Polska 1969-1989: Poland under communism.” Niedenthal is an award-winning photographer who
has worked as a photojournalist for Newsweek, TIME and Der Spiegel. Interviewed by Harpa Björnsdóttir
of the Reykjavík Museum of Photography.
“Difficult to say who fell asleep first. Somewhere in southern Poland in the 70s.” Chris Niedenthal
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