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Roman Sumik
(born 1933, dead 1994 in Warsaw) Film photographer and photoreporter. Associated with the weekly "Film" for more than 35 years, later transformed into a monthly. The first reportages made coming from films set he published already in 1958, but the 60's were his most creative period. Almost all reportages from Polish film sets, festivals or premieres for "Film" were made in that period. When something important for the Polish film took place, he was most probably there. He found himself a place between actors and film crew members and documented the birth of great personalities of domestic cinematography. Photoreportages on "Popioły" by Wajda, "Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie" by Has or "Sól ziemi czarnej" by Kutz has a tremendous advantage today which can be described as follows: they capture the most important elements of the work coming into being before the outbreak of its greatness.
Work in a studio suited Sumik much better than outdoors. In the studio, he could perfectly capture the tension between actors in each scene, showing at the same time the most interesting and characteristic elements of the setting. On the other hand his outdoor shots, when compared to frames from the finished movie, are somewhat aside, not fully reflecting the atmosphere of the scene. "Roman Sumik made portraits and private sessions of numerous Polish actors. I think he liked it and probably that's why he preferred studio to outdoor shots – recalls Bożena Janicka, the long-time director of the domestic section in "Film" – He looked at the cinematography and situations on the set more as a photographer, a craftsman. He went to the set, did what he had to do, and went back. A solitary type. Even if his photographs were to be published with a text coverage, Sumik went to the set on the other day than the journalist who wrote the piece"1.
In the 70's, Sumik published reportages in "Film" interchangeably with Jerzy Troszczyński, and in the 80's - with Jerzy Końsnik. When in 1993 the periodical was transformed into a monthly, Sumik not published much. His last works were reportages on the films: "Pora na czarownice" by Łazarkiewicz and "Jańcio Wodnik" by Kolski. In 2007, the photo archive of Roman Sumik was bought by the National Film Archive.
Piotr Śmiałowski
1. Author's interview with Bożena Janicka, December 2013.
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