We feel more when we can experience the energy of visual art and music at the same time. In the concert accompanying the exhibition of Eugeniusz Helbert’s works, music and image are arranged to form a single emotional whole and to draw the audience in even more.
The exhibition „…and only shadows will remain” tells the story of the vanishing trade of the sea fisherman: the people, their work and everyday life by the sea. The images are accompanied by specially chosen music that heightens the emotion, underlines the atmosphere of the photographs and lets you look at the story from a completely different perspective. It is more than an exhibition and more than a concert: a layered experience that engages sight, hearing and emotion, telling a story about people, the sea and a world that is slowly passing.
Concerts with the projection have been given at the Ślendziński Gallery in Białystok, the Atelier Gallery in Chełm, and in Szczecin, Przemyśl, Łomża, Warsaw and at the Maritime Museum in Gdynia.
Eugeniusz Helbert
A press photographer and teacher, member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers, the Photoclub of the Republic of Poland, the Association of Polish Journalists, the board of the Press Photography Club at the Association of Polish Journalists and the Trade Union of Culture Creators. A juror for Newsweek magazine choosing the photo of the month, nominated and awarded in the Grand Press Photo competition. For years he worked with the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw.
He takes a completely unconventional approach to the world around him. He does not like talking about himself or his work; he believes photographs should speak for themselves. Every one of his exhibitions is a tribute to the beauty of everyday life, understood not only as the energy of colour and nature, but also as greys full of visual understatement, recalling the work of Paul Klee or Beksiński. Besides the exhibitions, whose leitmotiv is his characteristic „wind”, his body of work includes photographs of the greatest artistic events, among them exceptional pictures of ballet performances. Exhibitions: „Small homelands”, „Warsaw from a notebook”, the series „21 pages… from a notebook” and „…and only shadows will remain”.
I cannot shake the impression that the surroundings are only a pretext for telling stories from the borderland of the subconscious. What we see in the exhibition are shots that are more symbolic, atmospheric, dark, or captivating in their simplicity.
Anna Wolska, kuratorka wystawy w galerii Obok ZPAF, Warszawa
A very personal, deeply poetic vision of the world in black and white. The individual frames are often extremely spare, yet in each of them you can find layers of planes and added meanings.
Wojciech Chamryk, dziennikarz, portal 4lomza
Eugeniusz Helbert
A respected art photographer, member of the Photoclub of the Republic of Poland, the Association of Polish Journalists, the board of the Press Photography Club at the Association of Polish Journalists and the Trade Union of Culture Creators.
For almost half a century he worked as a press photographer and a teacher, training successive generations of photographers during student placements. For years he was associated with the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw.
He has shown his photographs at group exhibitions throughout Poland and at solo exhibitions, among them „From a notebook…”, „Small Homelands”, „21 pages… from a notebook” and „Ballet”, in Warsaw, Katowice, Szczecin, Wojnowo and Łomża. His work is used by lecturers in photography schools as an example and an inspiration. A juror of photography competitions working with Newsweek magazine, nominated and awarded in the national Grand Press Photo competition.
His photographs have appeared in Newsweek, Gazeta Wyborcza, Życie z kropką and in publications of the Grand Theatre National Opera. He specialises in photographing cultural events and is the author of hundreds of pictures of world-class artists: Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wojciech Kilar, Marc Minkowski, Nigel Kennedy, Franciszek Pieczka, Danuta Stenka, Krzysztof Kolberger, Zaz, Natalia Kukulska, Manhattan Transfer, Michał Urbaniak and Jan Garbarek.
During a break-in at one of the museums, two of his works were the only things stolen. In 2021 he was named among the Personalities of the Year by Britishpedia, the Encyclopaedia of Personalities of the Republic of Poland.
From the work of Eugeniusz Helbert
He publishes his work regularly: facebook.com/eugeniusz.helbert.