Agata Grzybowska is a Polish

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

and war correspondent. She is well known for her photographs from the Syrian civil war, the 2011–2014 Egyptian crisis, and

Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protes ...

in Ukraine.

Childhood and education

Grzybowska was born in . She graduated from the

National Film School in Łódź National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, where she studied photography.

Photojournalism and war correspondence

Grzybowska started work as a photojournalist for '' Gazeta Wyborcza'' (GW) in 2012. She was sent by GW as a photographic war correspondent to the Syrian civil war, to Egypt during the 2011–2014 crisis, and to Ukraine during

. Grabowska's photos of protests in Poland are distributed internationally by

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

and

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

. One of Grabowska's photos taken in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

during Euromaidan, on 16 January 2014, "Black Thursday", won the ''BZ WBK Press Foto'' award for 2015. Grabowska described the scene that she saw on arriving at the centre of the events in Kyiv in the evening of 16 January as "a postwar landscape". She said that the casualties were being counted, and the wounded cared for. Grzybowska described the scene of her photo, stating that she saw some exhausted protestors resting for a moment in front of a barricade supported by tyres, not knowing if they would become the next victims; that smoke was in the air; and that she tried to show the "depth of human existence".

2020 detention at anti-Czarnek protest

During the October–November 2020 Polish protests, Grzybowska's 18 November photo of a journalist being treated after a tear gas attack by police was widely circulated by

. At a 23 November 2020 protest against Science and Education Minister

Przemysław Czarnek Przemysław Czarnek (born 11 June 1977) is a Polish politician and academic, who was voivode of the Lubelskie Voivodeship from 2015–2019. He was elected in 2019 as member of the 9th Sejm as a member of Law and Justice. Czarnek is notable for ...

in Warsaw, during the protests, Grzybowska was detained by police. A video documenting Grzybowska's detention showed that photojournalists present at the incident loudly told the police that Grzybowska was a journalist and that Grzybowska displayed her journalist's identification card while she was being detained. The journalists yelled to the police that since Grzybowska was a journalist, it was illegal to detain her. Altogether five protestors were detained, including Łania, a Stop Bzdurom activist. Members of the Polish lower house of parliament, the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...

, and photojournalists went to the police station at Wilcza Street where Grzybowska was detained. One protestor was deliberately hit by a police van, according to '' OKO.press'' journalist Maciek Piasek, who said that the protestor's hand was broken. Police spokesperson Sylwester Marczak alleged that Grzybowska had assaulted a police officer. Grzybowska was released at 19:00 local time, two hours after her detention. Photojournalist Jędrzej Nowicki stated that the police claim of Grzybowska assaulting a police officer was "impossible", because she was in "a crowd of journalists and police", and she was "two heads shorter than most of" the police surrounding her. He described the context of the preceding few days of police brutality as unprecedented in his experience. By 02:00 in the early morning of 24 November, 400 journalists and photojournalists had signed an appeal written by of ''OKO.press'' complaining about police violence against the media during the preceding weeks and calling for the police to cease all actions limiting

press freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...

and journalists' work.

Other publications and prizes

Grzybowska's photographic interviews with nine people living isolated lives in the Bieszczady Mountains, published as ''9 Gates of No Return'' ( pl, 9 bram, z powrotem ani jednej), received several prizes, including the ''Photo Book of The Year 2017'' awarded by ''Grand Press Photo''. Grzybowska described her choice to visit loners living in the Bieszczady Mountains as a spur of the moment decision resulting from her realisation that the loners' lives were similar to her life as a war photographer, as a resignation from everyday life, though in different ways. She spent four months in one winter and three months in the following winter in the mountains.

Personal life

Grzybowska dedicated her 2017 book, ''9 Gates of No Return'', to her partner Ola.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grzybowska, Agata Living people Polish photojournalists Polish women journalists Year of birth missing (living people) Łódź Film School alumni Women photojournalists Polish women photographers 21st-century Polish photographers