Erazm Ciołek

Erazm Ciołek (24 June 1937 – 13 November 2012) was a Polish photojournalist, author of many exhibitions and laureate of various awards. He is considered as the main photographer of the Solidarity movement.

Biography Ciołek was born in Łódź. In 1957, he enrolled at the Faculty of Sociology of the University of Warsaw, but he never graduated.

He photographed the striking workers at the Gdańsk Shipyard; secretive meeting of the anti-communist opposition during the martial law in Poland; Solidarity demonstrations; John Paul II's pilgrimage to Poland; life in the Parish of St. Stanisław Kostka in Warsaw where the martyr priest Jerzy Popiełuszko worked and the funeral of Grzegorz Przemyk, Polish high school student murdered by the communist security forces in 1983.

Ciołek was distinguished for his works with many awards. In 2006, President Lech Kaczyński awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

He died, aged 75, in Warsaw.

Publications Stop, kontrola: Stocznia Gdańska, sierpień 1980, 1981 Kuba Fidela Castro, 2007 Polska: sierpień 1980 - sierpień 1989, 1990 and 2010