Photograph of an unrecognised man

We do not know who the man with a dark beard and high forehead depicted in the photograph was or why his likeness was included in the collection of photographs by Halina Mamelok née Baruch. Originally, the photograph had a cardboard box and tissue paper covering it (removed for conservation reasons). | The photograph was taken in the Warsaw atelier on the corner of Jerozolimskie Avenue and Marszałkowska Street. The company of Marian (Marjan) Fuks (Fuchs) operated from 1910 to the 1930s. (it was not only a Photographic Workshop, but also the First Polish Photographic Agency, from 1920 it was called Propaganda). Fuks took portraits and views; his speciality was reportage photography (documenting political and cultural life, hunting, etc.). On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of his agency (1925), he published a brochure entitled Zaranie fotografii dziennikarskiej w Polsce [The Beginning of Journalistic Photography in Poland], in which he set out his views on the work of a photojournalist and presented the history of his activity. Even before World War I, he initiated the establishment of the Association of Photography Workers, bringing together Jewish companies (see K. Lejko, J. Niklewska, Warszawa na starej fotografii. 1850–1914 [Warsaw in Old Photography. 1850-1914], Warsaw 1978, p. 99). He was also a filmmaker, documenting, among others, the funeral of Bolesław Prus in 1912, the same year he made a feature film Obłąkany [The Insane] (with the outstanding actor Stefan Jaracz), and in 1919 - Carewicz [Tsarevich], based on a play by Gabriela Zapolska; both films have not survived.