Assessment: “Zofia Rydet, Sociological Record” at The Photographers’ Gallery

Zofia Rydet was ambivalent in regards to the identify of her most well-known undertaking. A Sisyphean job if ever there was one, Sociological Record was Rydet’s try and {photograph} inside each dwelling in her native Poland. But Rydet, who began the mammoth undertaking in 1978 when she was 67 years previous, was by no means positive the identify appropriately matched her intentions. (“Sociological Record” was coined by her buddy, the critic and historian Urszula Czartoryska.) She felt the time period sounded too educational for what she was making an attempt to attain; for Rydet, documentary pictures was maybe extra artwork than science. Nevertheless, the greater than 20,000 photos she took earlier than her dying in 1997 supply a sweeping survey of Polish home life within the second half of the 20 th century. The undertaking sought to protect conventional people tradition in a rustic that was quickly modernizing.

Rydet began the undertaking late in her life, however then once more she didn’t take pictures severely till she was 40, when she joined the Gliwice Photographic Society. By the time she began Sociological Record, Rydet’s work had already been printed and exhibited in Poland. Her earlier images have been surreal and dreamlike, in stark distinction to the photorealism of Sociological Record—the physique of labor that may outline her. Exhibiting Sociological Record is a gargantuan problem in and of itself. How many photos should be exhibited to do justice to the size of the undertaking? A brand new present at London’s Photographers’ Gallery has stepped as much as the duty. The exhibition, which can also be known as “Sociological Record,” was curated by Clare Grafik and Karol Hordziej and types a part of U.K./Poland Season 2025 cultural program.

The premise of Sociological Record is each devilishly easy and impossibly laborious: {a photograph} inside each dwelling in Poland. Its success would relaxation on the character of the photographer. Rydet’s “method” was merely to knock on strangers’ doorways and ask to take their image inside. Not all people would have the ability to allure their manner inside so many properties, however Rydet was clearly as affable as she was formidable. She had the present of gab in addition to of the lens.

Scan your eyes throughout the wall of photos within the London show and repeated motifs stand out: pans hanging from ceilings, plates proudly displayed in cupboards, spiritual iconography affixed to partitions (crosses, work of Jesus, images of Pope John Paul Ii). But there are idiosyncrasies in every picture, touches of character that remind us we’re taking a look at individuals’s personal areas: a lady in her kitchen, a pile of soiled potatoes mendacity at her ft, a sullen teenager subsequent to her posters of David Bowie and Sting. Each of the sitters stares unsmilingly (Rydet’s course) into the digicam. Her wide-angle lens and highly effective flash meant that she might seize the darkish interiors of individuals’s rural properties. Rydet as soon as stated she wished to {photograph} the previous and ugly to show them into saints, however the flash rendered most of the faces ghostlike. They stare again at us like deer in headlights. The longer you take a look at the photographs, the extra psychological, relatively than sociological, they really feel.

There have been a number of subprojects inside Sociological Record. One, Women on Doorsteps, is a collection of portraits of girls standing on the entrances of their properties. Another, Presence, exhibits the recurring portraits of Pope John Paul II, the favored pontiff who represented an ethical authority in opposition to the Communist regime. In one other subseries, Fieldwork, Rydet photographed her bus journeys, capturing herself within the reflection of the driving force’s mirror. Amazingly, when Rydet set off to {photograph} each home in Poland, she took the bus.

Looking on the photos now, we are able to glean insights into the on a regular basis realities of Rydet’s Poland: the resistance of faith in a Communist state, the endurance of conventional people tradition in a rustic that was creating, the affect of Western tastes within the Soviet Bloc. Even if it wasn’t her essential goal, Rydet’s collection is a testomony to individuality and reminiscence in an oppressive regime. A nation is a troublesome factor to outline. Perhaps one of the best ways to grasp one is by its individuals and their personal areas.

Are the photographs in Sociological Record extra artwork than documentary? Rydet had no qualms about rearranging the surroundings to make the picture look extra visually attention-grabbing—a lamp moved right here, an image body there. Where does the road between artwork and documentary sit? It would have been good if the London exhibition probed this query. Instead, we’re left largely to decipher the photographs ourselves.

There are roughly 100 prints on show, a small quantity in comparison with the 1000’s Rydet shot. One needs there have been extra, to be swept away by a wall of faces from the previous. The present can’t assist however really feel modest compared to the size of the unique undertaking. Most of Rydet’s 20,000 negatives have been by no means printed, so the curators determined to give attention to the classic prints made in Rydet’s lifetime. Traveling so usually, with rolls and rolls of movie accumulating, Rydet had little time to spend within the darkroom.

Where did this compulsion to file come from? Again, the London exhibition doesn’t query Rydet’s obsessiveness in any depth. Rydet requested herself this query in 1988. “I have so many pictures,” she stated, “but I sometimes wonder: Is there any sense to it all? Why do I do it? Nobody wants them. It’s all so interesting, and I can’t exhibit it anywhere.” But, she went on, “every summer, like a dog returns to his kennel, I return to this.” What compelled her to return yr after yr? Rydet’s Poland noticed warfare, occupation, and repressive Communist rule throughout her life. In turbulent instances, custom takes on somber significance. So too does the act of photographing. Photography, Rydet believed, may very well be a bulwark in opposition to change, even dying itself. “Time is relentless,” Rydet as soon as stated, “and everything changes. Not only do people die, but with them their homes. Not only people vanish, but also everything that surrounds them. Only photography can stop time. Only photography has the power to overcome the specter of death, and that is my unending struggle with death and transience.”

“Zofia Rydet: Sociological Record” is on at The Photographers’ Gallery till February 22, 2026. It is produced by The Photographers’ Gallery in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (co-financed by the  Ministry of Culture and National Heritage), Poland and the Zofia Rydet Foundation.

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