Tadeusz Rolke’s extensive artistic output includes many female figures. From an early age he immortalized with his camera his mother, her friends and random ladies strolling through the streets of post-war Warsaw
The artist’s later work, is also linked to fashion photography and does not lag behind when it comes to the presence of the female element appearing in the frames. Without it, fashion photography could not exist. It is women who were and are the largest audience for fashion photography and designer styling, which it is supposed to depict in the best possible way. Rolke photographed acquaintances from his studies, artists from various bohemian circles of the time, his girlfriends, as well as models during commissioned photo shoots.
In the 1970s, Natalia LL’s personality and her “consumer and post-consumer art” are on everyone’s lips, including her then controversial photographs depicting women eating various products in an ostentatious manner. At the time, Rolke remains faithful to a quiet, black-and-white female portrait and photographs actress Malgorzata Braunek in her apartment, covered almost up to her neck by a modest dress. This does not mean, of course, that only such an image of femininity appears in his works. The photographer’s portfolio also includes many female nudes. It is also worth noting the first series of nudes by Tadeusz Rolke. The project entitled “Beatrice” is the author’s reaction to the pain and feelings of emptiness caused by the separation from the woman close to his heart. The somewhat perverse, staged shots taken in a small Warsaw apartment catch the viewer’s eye with their dramatic overtones. Certainly the frames appearing in “Beatrice” could appear in a campaign of a contemporary, controversial Western fashion house, advertising accessories in an emphatic, somewhat vulgar, provocative manner.
Tadeusz Rolke
Drugim pozornie odbiegającym od klasycznych fotografii modowych projektem Tadeusza Rolke jest zestaw aktów „Ślady”, później przeobrażony w „Dotyk”. W zrobionym na początku lat 80. cyklu są widoczne kobiety w zmysłowych teatralnych pozach, oświetlone subtelnym światłocieniem. Ciała kobiet są pomalowane farbami, które na fotografiach stanowią element stroju. Być może fotograf za pomocą tych zdobień dokonuje pewnej polemiki z klasycznymi, komercyjnymi kadrami modowymi. Mimo tego, że kobiety występujące na zdjęciach są nagie, dzięki kolorowym zabiegom malarskim dokonanym na ich skórze, można te kobiece akty zakwalifikować do fotografii mody.
Fashion photography in the work of Tadeusz Rolke manifested modernity and an unconventional approach to the subject on the Polish photographic scene at the time. This was certainly due, among other things, to his travels abroad and prolonged emigration in the Federal Republic of Germany. He looked for inspiration in magazines published behind the Iron Curtain, as well as from other photographers. Analyzing his work, one can see many similarities with the work of well-known figures from the world of photography working abroad.
An example of one such photographer worth emphasizing is Helmut Newton. The artist, quite like Tadeusz Rolke, experienced his greatest, most prolific heyday of fashion photography during the 1960s and 1980s. Newton was provocative and aggressive. In his photos he repeatedly emphasized the differences between the two sexes, sometimes in such a radical way that feminists accused him of misogyny. He depicted women as they were with the arrival of the new millennium. His arranged, carefully considered frames, above all, focused precisely on the women so beloved by Tadeusz Rolke. Newton’s fashions also included portraits of models, famous people and nudes.
Helmut Newton
In “Beatrice” by a Polish photographer, a woman is observed writhing in a small apartment, her eyes obscured by a mysterious blindfold. A seemingly innocuous gadget with little meaning, yet so revealing a field for interpretation and fantasy. Helmut Newton’s photographs reduce the viewer to just such fantasies. Sexuality in Newton’s work is unobjectified and very powerful. He shows women’s bodies handcuffed, endowed with artificial limbs, abused and dominated at the same time. He has created a world of modern, contemporary women who know what they want and what their value is. The nudity appearing in the work of both photographers does not give only pleasure.
Newton’s fashions feature elegant Western interiors, exclusive jewelry, strong, muscular women and starkly contrasting black and white. Unlike custom-made fashion, Newton’s portraits are devoid of spectacular visual tricks and additional means of expression3. As in the case of Tadeusz Rolke, his portfolio is also not lacking in shots with mannequins, animals or means of communication accompanying female silhouettes.
A comparison of the work of the two photographers illustrates very well what the sets looked like in the West, and what they looked like in communist Poland. The splendor, opulence, hotel apartments are juxtaposed with socialist, gray Polish apartments. Western models in Newton’s photographs are confident, seductive and vulgar. Conscious of their bodies and personalities. In Rolke’s, one observes petite, slightly shy girls posing for the lens. They are strong, but devoid of power, which in turn emanates from Helmut Newton’s female photographs. Such a clash of two quite different worlds perfectly creates a portrait of the society of the time.
He portrays very well the image of women, who, despite a certain element of creation on the part of the artists, are for the most part simply themselves in the photographs. The mannequins in Rolke’s photographs are vulnerable, objectified and decorative. The plastic woman present beside the living figure in Newton’s photograph is perhaps part of a provocative story telling of lesbian love. The bear standing next to the heroine in the French photographer’s frame looks as if it is submissive and obedient to her. The dog in Rolke’s shot, on the other hand, evidently seems to be in control of its owner. Even the detail adorning the artists’ works is significant. The photos that depict heels are undoubtedly advertising fashion photographs, but they also show two different women. The heroine of Rolke’s photograph is submissive. She lies in the woods as if raped and defenseless, while Newton’s shoe could be a weapon, a perfect tool in a woman’s hands. Newton’s iconic diptych titled. “They Are Coming” is devoid of the urban background so important in Rolke’s Moscow photography. It depicts women naked and clothed. They walk proudly against a plain, studio white background. They are clear subjects. It is interesting that the diptych by the German photographer was made twenty years after the Polish artist’s picture. The viewer may have the impression that Helmut Newton was inspired by the work of Tadeusz Rolke, as the two photographs are very similar.
While Tadeusz Rolke photographed for the Polish fashion giant Mody Polska, Helmut Newton worked with the world’s most important designers and fashion houses. The portfolio of each of the aforementioned photographers shows a strong interest in women. Their authorial, innovative view of fashion through the prism of the heroines of the frames, additionally embellished with clothing styles, allows viewers to authentically experience fashion photography.
Text and pictures: Tomasz Bielka; sources: H. M. Giza, Artyści mówią - Wywiady z mistrzami fotografii, Wydawnictwo Rosikon Press, Warszawa 2011; M. Płażewska (red.), Rolke, Wydawnictwo BOSZ, Olszanica 2015.
