silver gelatin print, thin bromide paper, 30 x 20 cm;
artist’s print; on the reverse, the artist’s stamp: FOT. ST. BURNATOWICZ REPR. WZBRONIONA / signed in pencil ST BURNATOWICZ.
A Polish photographer and documentary photographer specializing in nature and mountain landscapes, associated with Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains. He developed a passion for photography from a very young age, capturing landscapes, seascapes, ships, and car races in his photographs. During the interwar period, he lived in Lviv, where he graduated from high school. Just before the outbreak of World War II, he was drafted into the army and participated in military exercises in Volhynia, documenting the life and service of a telegraph unit. During the war, he was interned but managed to escape and make his way through the Dukla Pass to Lviv. Facing the threat of deportation to Kazakhstan, he took refuge in Dzików with his fiancée, who later became his wife. During the occupation, he was active in the Home Army, participating, among other things, in the handling of airdrops. After the war ended, in 1945, he left Tarnobrzeg and moved to Kraków. Because of his activities in the Home Army, he was wanted by the Security Office. In 1949, he settled permanently in Zakopane, which became the center of his life and artistic work. As a highly regarded photographer, he received special permits allowing him to work within national parks. His main artistic interests lay in mountain landscapes and the natural beauty of the Tatra Mountains; he rarely tackled ethnographic subjects. He was affiliated with the Foto-Jedność Workers’ Cooperative in Zakopane, which published photographic postcards. During periods of financial hardship, he also took souvenir photographs of tourists on Giewont. He left behind a rich body of work documenting the beauty of the Polish mountains and nature, a testament to his lifelong passion and exceptional sensitivity to the landscape.
