ABOUT AUTHORS

The primeval forest has always been for us a symbol of wild, fresh nature, a place in which it is possible to talk with the Highest, a special temple, and it would never do to destroy what is holy. We often fail to understand and appreciate what we have. I fear that when many people’s eyes are finally opened - it will already be too late.

Jan Walencik

AUTHOR OF THE PHOTGRAPHS AND FILMS:

John Walencik (born 1955) is one of the most celebrated Polish documentary filmmakers and nature photographers. Since the eighties connected with the National TV channel Telewizja Polska, where he gained recognition as co-author of the cult programme Zwierzyniec (Zoological Garden). Assisted by his wife Bożena (born 1956) he has made about 50 natural history films, among others the 5-part serial Pulse of the primeval forest, awarded the MFFT Grand Prix in Milan and recognized as a true breakthrough in Polish natural history filming. An even greater success may await their latest super production - Saga of the primeval forest.

Jan Walencik is also a celebrated photographer and the author of albums that with their extraordinary style of narration and composition, have gone a step further than the existing books about Polish nature. Inspired in his youth by the accomplishments of the famous nature photographer Włodzimierz Puchalski, he usually chooses wild nature as the main subject of his works, and above all his beloved Bialowieza Primeval Forest, in which he has lived together with his wife for the last 17 years.

AUTHORS OF THE EXHIBITION’S ACCOMPANYING SCIENTIFIC TEXTS:

Prof. Andrzej Strumiłło - renowned painter, graphic artist, photographer and writer. It is said he is an artist of the borderlands between the elements, those hidden in nature and these dormant in man, the builder of civilizations. One of his great inspirations is wildlife; he is closely connected with the Bialowieza Primeval Forest.

Prof. Tomasz Wesołowski PHD, D.Sc. – Head of Wrocław University’s Bird Ecology Faculty, president of the European Ornithologists’ Union. Along with his team, he has been conducting uninterrupted research for over 30 years in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest and more precisely, in the last fragment of temperate zone primeval forest saved in the Bialowieza National Park.

Prof. Janusz Hereźniak PHD, D.Sc. – professor at Lodz University, specialist in geo-botany, plant ecology and dendrology, honoured for his scientific activity with many of prestigious prizes; artist and photographer.

Grażyna Łaska PHD, D.Sc. – biologist, lecturer at Bialystok Polytechnic’s Environmental Building and Engineering Faculty. Her main scientific interests are ecology and geo-botany.

Doctor Andrzej Korbel - doctor of architecture, activist for nature protection, photographer, journalist, member of Bialowieza National Park’s scientific council.

Marta Maziarz – ornithologist, postgraduate of Wrocław University’s Biology Faculty, co-operating closely with Prof. Tomasz Wesołowski.