On Saturday’s noon, November 27, at the IPN’s stand No. 80 a meeting took place with Sam Bryan, a son of Julien Bryan – the author of photos presented in the album „Siege of Warsaw in the photographs of Julien Bryan”.

The album was awarded with the KLIO Prize by the Historic Book Publishers in Varsaviana category for his outstanding contribution in pupularizing history. The book is the first such extensive and comprehensive presentation of Julien Bryan’s work. Its main theme is the siege of Warsaw by the German army in 1939, and most importantly - the fate of the residents of the Polish capital, as seen by the American photographer. In addition to a wide selection of photographs, there are Bryan’s reportages, translated into Polish for the first time: Siege of 1939, Warsaw revisited of 1959 and the accounts of Poles who helped Bryan: On the ruins of Praga, a radio speech given by Cpt. Władysław Polesiński and Warsaw in September with Julien Bryan, reminiscences of Stefan B. T. Radliński. Introduction by Jacek Sawicki and Tomasz Stempowski’s essay are a contemporary attempt to show the work of the American photographer in a broader historical context.

Julien H. Bryan (1899-1974) - American filmmaker, photographer and writer. Author of more than a hundred documentaries filmed around the world. During World War I he was an ambulance driver at the front at Verdun. A few days after the outbreak of World War II he arrived in Warsaw to document the fate of residents of the besieged city. However, Bryan did not see himself as a war photographer. He wrote: I am not a war correspondent, but a reporter using his camera at the time of peace, a person whose job is to travel the world and photograph the people, not bombs. Julien Bryan has visited Poland six times. Owing to his numerous press coverages, the book and especially the film Siege, millions of people saw the true face of war.