On the occasion of the Year of Melchior Wańkowicz, established on the 50th anniversary of the writer's death, the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino (which he described in a 3-volume reportage), and the 80th anniversary of the death of his daughter Krystyna, killed in the Warsaw Uprising, the Museum of Literature invites you to an exhibition entitled Melchior Wańkowicz. Fotoreporter, presenting an unknown part of the literary reporter's oeuvre. The exhibition, exhibited...

The exhibition, on display at the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature , is not only a form of honouring its protagonist on the occasion of the literary patronage of the year 2024. We wish to present to a wider audience a virtually unknown part of the writer's oeuvre - the photographs, preserved in family albums, donated to the Museum of Literature in October 1974.

The photographs presented at the exhibition sometimes actually illustrated the reportages. For the most part, however, this is an unpublished collection, despite the fact that it documents events and places and characters important from a historical perspective, corresponding with the biography, work and literary interests of the author of Herbs on the Crater.

The photographs reveal Wańkowicz's visual sensitivity to readers. At the same time, they are evidence of the perceptiveness and insight that characterised him as a writer. However, we propose to treat his works as more than just a biographical curiosity or an artistic work. Among the Museum's holdings, we distinguish and present three albums, each of which documents a slightly different reality and constitutes a closed, separate work.