The History Meeting House is the first one in Poland to present Andrei Pandele’s photographs. The exhibition Private and prohibited photographs is a unique document of one of the most predatory Communist systems. Andrei Pandele consistently photographed the madness of the regime’s last two decades. Those who “humiliated the achievements of Socialism” faced the penalty of many years in prison, so the photographer learnt how to take pictures without looking into the finder or simply from under his coat.

The author is most interested in daily life and an individual. The new architecture, parades, omnipresent portraits of the “Father of the Nation”, poverty, absurdity of Communism, or even such dramatic events as the tearing down of the centre of Bucharest serves only as a background for the story of an individual. Each photograph has its hero; each is a close-up of an individual fate, which – apparently paradoxically– emphasizes the inhumanity of the system