Czesław (Jan) Siegieda was born to Polish parents in a displaced persons camp at Burton on the Wolds in Leicestershire, England in 1954. He took up photography from a young age, going on to document the Polish refugee community in the East Midlands and later studying at Trent Polytechnic School of Creative Photography in Nottingham (1973–77). Having archived his photographs for several decades out of respect for the elder members of his community, Siegieda finally shared them online in the late 2010s, resulting in renewed attention for his crucial documentary work.
Photographer Czesław (Jan) Siegieda was born in 1954 in a displaced persons camp at Burton on the Wolds in Leicestershire, England to Polish parents displaced during the Second World War. He lived in former Royal Air Force barracks until he was three years old, when the family moved to a nearby terraced house alongside fellow Polish refugees. With Polish as his first language, Siegieda started learning English at the age of five when he attended a Catholic school. His upbringing was steeped in the Polish traditions of his parents and their neighbours. Just before his tenth birthday, his father was killed in a motorbike accident and he 'took on the task of translating the world around for his mother' (Diane Smyth, The Calvert Journal, 2 April 2020). Around the same time, having received a Kodak Instamatic as a gift, Siegieda also started taking photographs, building a dark room in his house by the age of 13.
Beginning with intimate portraits of his family, he photographed the life of the Polish East Midlands-based community, displaced by war and unable to return to their homeland. His subjects included daily life, religious festivals, Polish Saturday school, Polish boarding schools, as well as rituals of remembrance and commemoration. Siegieda subsequently studied visual communications and photography at Trent Polytechnic School of Creative Photography in Nottingham (1973–77), where he was taught by prominent photographers Paul Hill, Raymond Moore, and John Blakemore, among others. In 1977–78 Siegieda was a photographer-in-residence at Gardner Arts Centre, University of Sussex. In 1978 he was awarded the Tolly Cobbold/Eastern Arts Photography Award and in 1978–80 he was the West Midlands Arts Photography Fellow.
In 1977, Siegieda exhibited his photographs at London's prestigious Half Moon Gallery, with the works later touring across the country, including at the Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester in 1981. When the tour reached Loughborough Public Library, in the heart of his family's community, he realised how uncomfortable it made some of his parents' generation feel. They were keen not to attract unnecessary attention to themselves and lwished to leave their émigré past behind. This led to a decision on Siegieda's part not to exhibit the photographs until that generation had passed away. In 2018, two years after his mother's death, Siegieda posted some of the photographs from his archive online, attracting widespread attention, including from the eminent British photographer Martin Parr. With his assistance Siegieda published his unique images in a limited edition hardback photo book titled Polska Britannica (2020), containing an essay by author and historian Jane Rogoyska, as well as a foreword by Parr. In 2019, Siegieda's photographs were exhibited as part of the Blast! Photo Festival in West Bromwich. In the UK public domain, several photographs by Siegieda are held in the National Portrait Gallery's collection. Czesław Siegieda currently lives and works in Exeter, Devon.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Czesław Siegieda]
Publications related to [Czesław Siegieda] in the Ben Uri Library