Edward Hartwig

(Born 1923 in Radomsko, died in ?). Camera operator and still photographer. Graduate of the Łódź Film School in 1951. He worked in the Wrocław Feature Film Studio. One of the most highly regarded camera operators in Polish cinema. He combined the work of a cameraman with film still photography. His passions were photography and painting and – as he himself said – what most interested him was the ability to compose frames and pictures. "I think it's precisely the camera operator" – said Hartwig – "who has the ability to define the final image of the film. And this deciding about the shape of the visual image is what I value most deeply."

As a result, his stills were very similar to the visual shape of the scene which he himself had previously established. His most memorable stills were taken for the films "Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie" dir. W.J. Has and "Salto" dir. T. Konwicki, which captured the most important poses and traits of the characters played in both films by Zbigniew Cybulski.

Hartwig had a strictly defined view of the work of the film still photographer and the camera operator: "It's not about postcard beauty" - he explained - "but about the ability to transfer in the most succinct way the intended content and atmosphere. It’s common knowledge that the same scene can be photographed differently. And each time it will mean something different (...) I think the only criterion for checking it is to find out how it's received: to know whether the result of our efforts reaches the viewers' imagination in the manner intended.^" 

Piotr Śmiałowski

ilmography of Hartwih as still photographer (incomplete): 

1960 – „Powrót”

1963 – „Naprawdę wczoraj”

1964 – „Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie”

1965 – „Salto”

1972 – „Ocalenie” (together with Janem Ossowskim)

Gallery

• 
  A negative index print from the film "Ocalenie", with a note by Hartwig