18th Photography Cabinet: Konrad Brandel. Visionary and Documentarian

Konrad Brandel - creator of the world’s oldest photographs taken during free balloon flight, shot above Warsaw in the summer of 1865 - and inventor of a portable “photo-revolver” camera that let him capture unposed street scenes. Often called the father of Polish photojournalism.

National Museum on the exhibition:

Konrad Brandel was an exceptionally active and creative figure among Polish professional photographers of the second half of the 19th and early 20th century. He threw himself into the new field of imaging with real passion and found brilliant ways to harness the power of the modern medium. The exhibition shows the world’s oldest photographs taken during free balloon flight. Captured from a previously inaccessible vantage point, these light-sensitive images show views of Warsaw recorded by Brandel in the summer of 1865. Soon after this spectacular event, the photographer staged a self-portrait with his camera in the balloon’s gondola - a work he later reused in advertising photomontages for his studio.

Brandel tirelessly documented the city - changes in Warsaw’s architecture, major events, but also the everyday life of its residents, always with an eye for considered composition and the aesthetic quality of the frame. In 1883 he built a “photo-revolver,” a portable camera for shooting “from the hand,” which let him capture unposed street scenes and earned him fame as an outstanding chronicler of the capital’s life. Thanks to this pioneering work, we can call him the father of Polish photojournalism.

Konrad Brandel was, without doubt, a visionary ahead of his time.

What to expect

The exhibition opens on 16 December 2026 and runs through 21 March 2027 in the Photography Cabinet (Gallery of 19th-Century Art, Main Building). The centerpiece is the world’s oldest photographs taken during free balloon flight - views of Warsaw from the summer of 1865, shot by Brandel from a vantage point no photographer had reached before. You’ll also see the results of his 1883 invention, the “photo-revolver,” a portable camera for candid shots that made him a pioneer of photojournalism and a chronicler of everyday Warsaw life.

Tickets and opening hours are on the National Museum’s website.

Museum profile: National Museum in Warsaw.