“I knock on the door, I say ‘hello,’ and I shake hands.”
- Zofia Rydet
From 1978, when she was 67, Zofia Rydet (Austria-Hungary (later Poland, now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine) 1911-1997) set out to photograph the inside of every Polish household. She would approach a home unannounced, knock, and warmly introduce herself and ask the people living there if they would like to take part in her project.
Rydet was always on the road, with a camera in her hand. For nearly three decades, she photographed people in their homes, still lives, building exteriors and landscapes. She also returned to the same houses several years after she first visited to document the transformation of rural Poland. The result – Sociological Record – is a monumental project and one of the most important achievements in 20th century Polish photography.
“Even if they don’t publish it… this will remain, not art perhaps, but a document of the times.”
- Zofia Rydet
Rydet used photography to express everyday stories and capture the essence of what it meant to be human. Despite the project’s epic scope, the individual portraits often feel intimate and revealing. Her careful and considered practice spans decades and she worked on the project until her death in 1997.
Totalling nearly 20,000 negatives, only a fraction of the Sociological Record images were printed in Rydet’s lifetime. Over 100 prints will be on show at The Photographers' Gallery, alongside books and personal letters.
Part of the UK/Poland Cultural Season 2025, in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland and the Zofia Rydet Foundation.
