Internationally renowned Polish photographer Zofia Nasierowska has been hailed as the subject of today’s Google Doodle, which would have been the artist’s 85th birthday.
Considered one of the most influential photographers of her time in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Nasierowska is known for her black and white portraits of prominent figures in Polish art and culture.
Among them were film directors Roman Polański and Andrzej Wajda as well as Polish film stars Beata Tyszkiewicz, Krystyna Janda and Jerzy Kawalerowicz.
Born in 1938 in Łomianki, 14 kilometers from Warsaw, Nasierowska eventually followed in the footsteps of her father, Euegeniusz Nasierowski, himself a renowned photographer who taught his daughter photography from an early age.
She took her first photo at the age of seven and participated in her first photography exhibition at the age of eleven.
But later, Nasierowska’s career as a portrait photographer took shape when she enrolled at the Leon Schiller National Film Academy in Lodz (known today as the famous Lodz Film Academy), where many of her classmates are now considered One of the most important figures in Polish culture.
In recognition of Nasierowska’s talent, at the age of 18 she was invited to become a member of the Związek Polskich Artystów Fotografików (ZPAF, or Polish Art Photographers Association) and elected to the International Federation of Photographic Art.
But it is widely believed that her career began in 1958 when she took a portrait of the actress Lucyna Winicka, which was chosen as “Ekran” (translated in English as “Silver Screen”) magazine’s cover character.
From that moment on, Nasierowska’s photographs regularly graced the covers of many different magazines and publications throughout the 1960s and 70s, including Ekran, Zwierciadło and Przekrój.
Although Nasierowska also photographed landscapes and reportage, she kept coming back to portraiture, for which she had a particular passion, and was known for her portraits of the Warsaw art scene, which everyone wanted to be photographed by her.
Additionally, Nasierwoska is known for her warm and welcoming personality, which helps put her models at ease and creates the right mood for each shot.
Nasierowska’s photographs have won her numerous international awards, including exhibitions in Glasgow, London, Stockholm, Budapest and Karlove Very, and she has been awarded the Artist FIAP by the International Federation of Photographic Arts.
After his death from a long illness in 2011, Nasierowska was buried in Poland’s famous Powazki Military Cemetery, on the Boulevard of the Deserving in western Warsaw, in the district The cemetery is reserved for Poland’s most eminent writers, artists, scholars and politicians, doctors, entrepreneurs and social activists from all ages.