Wojciech Urbanowicz

(born 1915 in Lublin, died ?) The greatest Polish still photographer of the old generation who is engraved in filmmakers’ memory so strongly that when there is a talk about “stills", Urbanowicz’s name is recalled as the first one. Urbanowicz worked in a photographic studio already before the war. After the war, probably in 1947, he became a full-time still photographer in PP “Film Polski". He worked in Łódź. During over 30 years of work, he made stills for more than 40 movies – including e.g. superproduction “Krzyżacy" [Teutonic Knights].

He debuted in work on a short film “Nawrócony" directed by Zarzycki. Already a year later, he made stills for “Dom na pustkowiu" by Rybkowski and “Robinson warszawski" by Zarzycki – movies that were repeatedly redone because of political turmoil; when they finally came out, they were only a shadow of the original idea. Today, we can see, mainly thanks to Urbanowicz’s stills, what many scenes that were removed from these films looked like. Urbanowicz cooperated with Aleksander Ford, Wojciech Has, Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Tadeusz Chmielewski. “Urbanowicz was a brand" – says Arkadiusz Orłowski, set manager with long professional experience. “He had pre-war manners, was usually elegantly dressed, everybody had considerable respect for him. He worked rather slowly, had plenty of remarks on the arrangement of light and positions of actors that usually delayed shooting and irritated the whole crew, but the result of it were great stills"¹.

In the first years, Urbanowicz worked on a massive wooden camera on a tripod, with film tins for 13x18 films. Making stills with such an equipment required setting of each movie scene nearly from scratch, irrespective of the fact how it had been shot by the cinematographer earlier. But thanks to large-format negatives, Urbanowicz was able to get photographs of excellent quality. However, he was probably the first still photographer to whom, because of his position in the milieu, 6x6 and 6x9 plate cameras were assigned  that registered many more details and allowed to take hand-held shots. “I met Urbanowicz in Łódź once – says another still photographer, Stefan Kurzyp – when he demonstrated this 6x9 Linhof Technika still folding camera of excellent quality².

And also a very personal recollection written down by Stanisław Różewicz, film director, in his diary: “Still photographer Wojtek Urbanowicz, keen hunter, admirer of plump women, explained loudly in the cafeteria, what the »sixty-nine« love position looks like..."³.

Piotr Śmiałowski

Filmography of Urbanowicz as still photographer:

1947 – „Nawrócony”

1948 – „Robinson warszawski”

1949 – „Dom na pustkowiu”

1949 – „Za wami pójdą inni”

1950 – „Warszawska premiera”

1951 – „Załoga”

1951 – „Młodość Chopina”

1953 – „Piątka z ulicy Barskiej”

1954 – „Uczta Baltazara”

1956 – „Zemsta”

1957 – „Kapelusz pana Anatola”

1957 – „Król Maciuś I”

1958 – „Pożegnania”

1959 – „Pociąg”

1959 – „Cafe »Pod Minogą«”

1960 – „Szatan z 7-ej klasy”

1960 – „Krzyżacy”

1961 – „Milczące ślady”

1962 – „Drugi brzeg”

1963 – „Gdzie jest generał…”

1963 – „Yokmok”

1964 – „Pierwszy dzień wolności”

1964 – „Panienka z okienka”

1965 – „Lenin w Polsce”

1965 – „Zawsze w niedziele”

1966 – „Marysia i Napoleon”

1966 – „Małżeństwo z rozsądku”

1968 – „Hrabina Cosel”

1968 – „Człowiek z M-3”

1969 – „Struktura kryształu”

1970 – „Twarz anioła”

1970 – „Pogoń za Adamem”

1970 – „Kaszebe”

1971 – „Perła w koronie”

1972 – „Szklana kula”

1972 – „Palec boży”

1974 – „Pełnia nad głowami”

1974 – „Gniazdo”

1975 – „Mazepa”