Polish cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik dies at 88
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
05.04.2019 11:40
Veteran cinematographer Jerzy Wójcik has died in Warsaw at the age of 88.
Jerzy Wójcik, pictured in 2012. Photo: PAP/Adam Warżawa
He was one of the co-founders of what is known as the Polish school of filmmaking of the 1950s and 1960s, having started his career in 1956 on the set of Andrzej Wajda’s feature Canal.
Wójcik’s credits as a cinematographer included Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds, Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s Pharaoh and Mother Joan of the Angels, and Jerzy Hoffman’s The Deluge.
Culture Minister Piotr Gliński has said that Polish cinema "has lost a great artist" with the death of Wójcik.
Radosław Śmigulski, director of the Polish Film Institute, has praised Wójcik as "the founding father" of the spectacular international successes of many Polish cinematographers in recent years.
In the 1970s, Wójcik took up directing, first of TV dramas and in later years films. In 1999, he directed the highly-acclaimed historical film The Gateway of Europe, set in 1918.
He lectured at the National Film School in the central city of Łódź for many years and at the radio and television department of the University of Silesia in Katowice, southern Poland.
He held numerous awards and distinctions for his artistic achievements.
(mk/gs)