Bolesław Augustis

Bolesław Augustowicz (24 June 1912 – 26 May 1995), also known as Bolesław Augustis, was an Eastern European photographer specialising in street photography. He worked in Poland documenting life in the pre-World War II Polish city of Bialystok and, later, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Boleslaw was born in 1912 to Polish parents living in Russia. From 1935 to 1939, Boleslaw was the operator of the studio Polonia Film, located in Kiliński Street, Bialystok. Boleslaw's photographs record everyday activities, special occasions, and political activity in the city, particularly in Kiliński, Lipowa and Palacowa streets.

Boleslaw travelled to New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 1949 on board the Rangitoto. The couple created a life together in Titirangi where their two sons, Zbigniew and Stanislaw, were born.

In 2004 Boleslaw's Bialystok film negatives were found hidden in an abandoned shed in Bialystok where his mother and sister had stored them after he was arrested and sent to Siberia. Polish photographer, curator, and caretaker of the Bolesław Augustis collection Grzegorz Dąbrowski, has been a key figure in the preservation, research and promotion of the collection.

The Sleńdziński Gallery in Białystok has organised a series of exhibitions of Augustis' work including the exhibition Bolesław Augustis: Two Homelands / Dwie Ojczyzny, curated by Grzegorz Dąbrowski, part of the 2026 Auckland Festival of Photography.