The Photographs of Zygmunt Bauman

(Paperback)

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Zygmunt Bauman is known internationally as the sociologist of postmodernity and liquid society. But he was also a serious photographer. This book presents a selection of his black-and-white photographs, together with a range of essays by colleagues, friends and family about his work with images.

The book features a mixture of short pieces on individual photographs and longer essays addressing aspects of Baumans photography and the life and work of his wife, Janina. These include an essay of Baumans from 1989, in which he considers Monika Krajewskas photographs of abandoned Jewish graveyards in Poland. Also reprinted is an essay by Baumans daughter Lydia, taken from the catalogue of an exhibition of the photographs in 2010, and an essay by Keith Tester about Baumans interest in film. Jack Palmer discusses the relationship between Baumans sociology and his photography, while Peter Beilharz, Janet Wolff, and Antony Bryant and Griselda Pollock offer personal reflections on some of Baumans photographs. The book concludes with an essay by Karl Dudman, one of the Baumans grandchildren, based on a series of photographs he took in the family home shortly after his grandfathers death.

Janina Bauman appears in a number of ways in the book. Some of the photographs are of her, and several of the short essays discuss her place in Zygmunts life and work. Izabela Wagner, biographer of Zygmunt Bauman, presents new material on Janinas work in the Polish film industry in the post-war period.

Author Bio

Peter Beilharz is Professor of Critical Theory at Sichuan University. He is the author of more than a dozen books and a founding editor of the journal Thesis Eleven.

Janet Wolff is Professor Emerita in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester. She is the author of several books on the sociology of art and of the family memoir Austerity Baby.