Over the past 40 years Boleslaw Lutoslawski has photographed many of the greatest figures in the arts in Europe, spanning the worlds of music, literature, dance and theatre.
Arriving in London from his native Poland in 1980, he was immediately absorbed into the capital’s fast-moving cultural scene, taking portraits of the likes of Glenda Jackson, Tom Stoppard, Bill Brandt, Philip King, Ernst Gombrich, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze, Peter Hall, Tambimuttu, George Martin, Marina Warner, Claes Oldenburg, Lucy Burge, Paloma Picasso, Jerry Goldsmith, Simon Rattle, Helaine Blumenfeld, Richard Rogers, John Peel, David Hurn, Anthony Caro, Simon Callow on assignments for Vogue, The Independent, Newsweek, The Illustrated London News, BBC and Harper’s & Queen among others.
His work, however, is not constrained by time or place. And it has absolutely nothing to do with fashion. Instead, it results from a moment of special affinity, a kind of spiritual kinship, between two different personalities – the photographer and sitter.
Boleslaw Lutoslawski also published several books on various subjects and articles for the press as an art critic. Individual exhibitions of his photography were presented in Cambridge, Krakow, Wroclaw, Edinburgh and London including two at the Southbank, and two at The October Gallery, Bloomsbury.
Opinions:
Sophie Grove, journalist
” For Bo Lutoslawski taking a portrait is like falling in love. His technique is near-telepathic inside into his subject, the way they move, the way they think - a fleeting attempt to catch their true identity.
He never asks anyone to smile; and to his delight, they often do.”
Jon J Muth, author/illustrator
“Your photographs feel timeless in the way The Beatles are timeless. And like The Beatles, you make it look easy”
Richard Avedon, photographer
“Beautiful and strange photographs … full of deep feeling”
Alexi Lubomirski, photographer
“… Extremely soulful…”
Bem Le Hunte, writer
“You are such an evocative photographer, with images that are so haunting, conjuring up stories from another time and place”
Max Wykes-Jones in Arts Review:
“Powerfully baroque and quintessentially Polish photographic images …. very exciting.”
Sir John Tusa, journalist, writer, Management of Barbican Arts Centre and BBC World Service
Bo Lutoslawski is a ‘photographer with a deep insight into people and character, an extraordinary honesty and a capacity to reveal the identity of his sitters’
William Goodchild, composer and conductor
I love the sense of humanity, being human, that pervades each and every one of your photographs, Bo. Somehow too, at the heart of each, the mystery of our condition caught in light and shadow. I so enjoy seeing and reflecting on these beautiful images.
