Famous artist, photograher of Arabian horses, author of unforgettable photos – Zofia Raczkowska passed away. Let’s remind shortly her biography.
She became interested in photography in early 60s. At first her works concentrated on family life and her closest surroundings. But soon she became interested in a press photography, especially picture stories. Her photos were published in daily press and in popular magazines. She became famous among publishers as a photographer of natural life and animals, but mainly horses. And she has been faithful to that passion the whole life. Her postcards with portraits of the most famous Arabian horses were published in late 60s. Cooperation with „Koń Polski” magazine („The Polish Horse”) and with Animex, where she illustrated advertisement publications of the company, let her meet the whole Polish „world of horses”. Over the years her photo archive, which includes pictures of all the most outstanding horses of different breeds, became a priceless source of information for scientists and horses’ enthusiasts.
Photos from the first period of her professional activity were published in albums „Pferde, Pferde”, „Araber Pferde” and „Aus meinem Tieralbum” by a West-German publishing house Sudwest in years 1973-1975. In the 80s, under publishers pressure, she decided to move to a coloured-photography. Her pictures soon became recognizable due to their specific pictorial style.
She won the main Kodak prize in the international calendar competition in Stuttgart in 1987. She had her works exhibited in Columbia (1983), Denmark (1985) and Sweden (1989). She won a prestigious Grand Prix Award in an international exhibition „Horses of the World” organized in Riga in 1990. Her album „Arabians” was published in 1992. Her retrospective exhibition took place at the turn of 2001/2002 in Warsaw’s gallery of Polish Artists-Photographers Association.
Read more:
Interview with Zofia Raczkowska – When Pilarka was a queen
Review of the album “Horses” – I saw that the world is full of horses…