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15.00 Opening of the exhibitionThe exhibition "I am a Woman Worker" features photographs by Włodzimierz Parys (1928–1986) of female textile workers from the city of Łódź in Poland. Parys took the photographs during the 1960s and 1970s, seeking to capture the women in their everyday lives and at work. Many of the photographs are also very well composed and beautifully developed, which testifies to Parys’s skill as a photographer. The selection of photographs was made by Parys’s grandson, Artur Parys, who is a researcher at the University of Łódź.
16.15 Lecture by Artur Parys
In 1969, Łódź photojournalist Włodzimierz Parys photographed women working at the Marchlewski Cotton Industry Plant, one of the city’s major textile factories. The presentation explores what everyday experiences of women’s labour reveal beyond official narratives of socialist production.
Drawing on a family archive of photographs rediscovered after fifty years, the presentation examines images taken in the factory’s production halls, workers’ homes and cultural settings. These are analysed alongside an oral-history interview with Jadwiga Pawłowska-Kwaśniak, who worked in the factory’s cultural institution and accompanied Parys during part of his documentation.
By combining photographs, oral history and photo elicitation, the presentation explores the material conditions of textile work, women’s domestic lives and the role of factory cultural activities in shaping working-class identity. It shows how these interconnected spaces offer a more nuanced understanding of women’s industrial experiences and the everyday realities often overlooked in official representations of the socialist woman worker.
About Artur Parys
Artur Parys holds degrees in Social Policy and Administration and a PhD in Social Sciences in the discipline of Economics and Finance. His academic interests focus on housing needs, local housing strategies and housing policies. His research also draws on documentary photography and his family’s photographic archive to explore urban space and urban sociology. He works at the Department of Investment and Real Estate at the University of Łódź, Poland.
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Event venue
Malmö Universitetsbibliotek, Beijerskajen 2A, SE-211 19 Malmö, Sverige, Malm, Sweden
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