«I was swaying with this thought»: The Story of an Unrealized Photographic Project by Michał Chomiński

Abstract

This article discusses an unrealized photographic project by Michał Chomiński (1819–1886), an actor and chronicler of the Warsaw State Theaters. Based on primary sources (partly included in the appendix), this reconstruction of the hitherto untold story of Chomiński’s Gallery of Dramatic Artists of Warsaw Theaters broadens our knowledge of the beginnings of Polish theater historiography. Chomiński is shown as the first collector of theater iconography who appreciated the documentary value of the photograph. The methodological framework of the article is based on selected aspects of research on collecting practices from the perspective of cultural studies.

Keywords

• michał chomiński
• nineteenth-century theater photography
• history of the polish theatre 1765–1880
• actor's emploi
• warsaw state theaters
• konrad brandel
• collecting