Unveiling of the Lajkarz sculpture by Michał Kubiak
19.10.2025 | 12:00
Freedom Square, Bydgoszcz
The event will be held in Polish.
At Freedom Square, a sculpture of the “Lajkarz” by Michał Kubiak will be unveiled, commemorating the street photographers active in the interwar period. With their Leica cameras in hand, they captured the everyday life of Bydgoszcz’s residents, creating an invaluable portrait of the city and its inhabitants.
The project was initiated by Katarzyna Gębarowska, ceo of the Fotografistka Foundation.
The small-format Leica camera, first presented at the Leipzig Trade Fair in 1925, sparked a true revolution. Photographers took to the streets, capturing residents in motion – walking, running, or rushing. Many such photographs quickly gained worldwide recognition, heralding “a completely new era in photography that no one had ever dreamed of before.” This also led to the rapid development of press photography, and from the mid-1920s, street photographers began appearing in cityscapes. In Poland, they were known as lajkarze, lejkarze, or leikowcy. They would take candid photos of passers-by, hand them a slip of paper with an address, and invite them to pick up their prints. The process was lightning-fast – on the same day, after a family walk, a romantic date, or running errands, one could drop by the photographer’s studio to collect the pictures. In Bydgoszcz, Leica street photographers “caught” people at Freedom Square by Gdańska Street, and along Mostowa and Długa Streets.
The sculpture will not only pay tribute to the street photographers of the past but will also become a new landmark on the city’s cultural map, reminding people of the unique traditions and atmosphere of old Bydgoszcz.
Michał Kubiak (b. 1946, Bydgoszcz) graduated with distinction in 1972 from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Poznań (today the University of the Arts Poznań). After returning to his hometown, alongside creative experiments in his own studio, he became actively involved in the local art scene, co-founding the Bydgoszcz Group Galeria 1+ X together with Ignacy Bulla and Janusz Bałdyga. In 1994, he served as commissioner of exhibitions of Bydgoszcz artists in London and Edinburgh. His sculptures can be found in numerous public and private collections. In 2016, his hometown honored him with a granite-engraved signature in the Bydgoszcz Avenue of Autographs, located along Długa Street.