Polish photographer, reporter and author of conceptual art series. Visual chronicler of economic, cultural and everyday life in the Polish People’s Republic in the late 1950s and the 1960s. Photographer of artistic life of the avant-garde of the 1960s, a member of artistic milieu gathered around the Foksal Gallery.
He came from Polish nobility, a family once bearing a count’s title. He was a son of Jan Kossakowski, a pediatric surgeon and an amateur photographer.
During Second World War he joined the resistance.
He graduated from Faculty of Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology where he was offered to work as a teaching assistant. However, he chose to pursue the career of a photographer.
Since 1957 he had cooperated with socio-cultural, illustrated magazines, such as „Polska”, „Ty i Ja”, „Zwierciadło”, „Stolica”.
These titles were published officially and aimed at presenting a positive image of a socialist country. Yet, they provided the readers with news on the most interesting scientific and cultural phenomena of those times – including the ones barely tolerated by the authorities.
In 1966 Kossakowski starts to cooperate with the avant-garde Foksal Gallery, based in Warsaw and devoted to conceptual art and the art of ephemeral events.
He started to collaborate with artists like Tadeusz Kantor or Edward Krasiński – today regarded as some of the most important for this period.
He also photographed the events taking place in other avant-garde milieus of the 1960s Poland: Cricot 2 Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor, theatre of Jerzy Grotowski, Krzywe Koło Gallery o Krzysztofory Gallery.
Due to the disintegration of the Foksal group and the political atmosphere in Poland, in 1970 he decided to emigrate to France.
He worked i.a. in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and the Pompidou Centre. He cooperated with French magazines and publishing houses. He also started to pursue conceptual photography. He gained recognition with his series 6 Metres Before Paris (6 metrów przed Paryżem, 1970-1971), presenting “Paris” road signs on the roads accessing the city, along with their suburban surroundings.
Other noteworthy series are the photographs of patches of light created by stained glass windows in the Chartres gothic cathedral – The Lights of Chartres (Światła Chartres, 1983-1990).
Sources:
Dobosz Andrzej, Eustachy Kossakowski (1925-2001), obituary, „Tygodnik Powszechny” 2001 no 49, p. 15.
Wierzbicka Anna, Eustachy Kossakowski. Fotograf, „Biuletyn Historii Sztuki” 2004, no 3/4, pp. 412-413.
Polit Paweł (ed.), Edward Krasiński. Elementarz ABC, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków 2008.
Sienkiewicz Karol, Eustachy Kossakowski, profile on the portal Culture.pl 2009, http://culture.pl/pl/tworca/eustachy-kossakowski
