Sociological Record

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Painting of a self-portrait of Zofia Rydet. She is a young white woman with short light curly hair, wearing a white top and a long necklace, as she looks into a camera. A man is hazy in the background

The Photographers’ Gallery in London, United Kingdom, is hosting an exhibition of 100 photographs of ‘Sociological Record,’ the massive, 20-year project by Zofia Rydet. We take a look at her work, before zooming out more broadly on visual sociology as an applied practice.

  • Black and white photo of a young boy crouching in the corner of a room with ornate wallpaper. The scene portrays art of women dancing surrounded by flowers. Two biblical paitings hang above. To the right we see outdoors, to a hut with a ladder reaching over the roof
    Zofia Rydet – Sociological Record
  • Black and white photo of an elderly woman scowling in a bedroom. She wears a scarf around her head, a diamond-pattern blouse and a long dark skirt. She is in frong of a large wooden bed and two large paintings, one showing a deer by a creek, and the other of a religious scene, likely depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph
    Podhale 1979
  • Black and white photo of a middle-aged woman with her hands on her hips. She stands under a wooden awning, with two cats by her feet and large water containers
    Lubeskie 1980
  • Black and white photo of a family. An elderly man and woman sit, with a younger woman and man standing holding twin boys. Behind them are various biblical framed pictures and figurines
    Rzeszowskie 1980
  • Black and white photo of a wall crowded with photographs and handing statues, as well as a table decorated with a saint figurine, flowers, and papers
    Podhale 1982
  • Black and white photo of a middle-aged woman who is not smiling. She sits in a large living room with dark wooden furniture and various expressionist paintings in the background, as well as a large crucifix and photographs
    Silesia 1988
  • Black and white photo of a woman in a scarf and pattered dress paining a snow scene. She is surrounded by paintings in a water-damaged room, with stains on the walls and roof
    Suwalskie 1987
  • Black and white photo of twin boys with small smiles. They are sitting on chairs surrounded by a large CRT TV from the 1980s. There are various figurines and a white model plane hangs from the ceiling
    Ssilesia 1988

Zofia Rydet

Zofia Rydet is a Polish photographer born in 1911, in Stanisล‚awรณw (now the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk). She dreamed of studying fine arts, but her parents encouraged her to study economics at a finishing school for women. She began dabbling in photography from the mid-1930s in her spare time, while working at her brother’s travel office, a stationary office, and later opening her own toy and stationary store. She survived various occupations during World War II, from Russia, Germany, and Hungary.

In her 40s, she begins to study photography more formally, and to connect with other artists. In 1956, her work is included in a group exhibition. Her first solo exhibition was in 1961. She closed her business and spent the next decade travelling the world, and begins winning photography awards.

From 1978, when Rydet was 67 years old, up to her death in 1997, she took nearly 20,000 pictures of the ordinarily domestic and working lives of Polish people. The current London retrospective on this work began on 10 October 2025 and runs until 22 February 2025.

In 1990, Rydet explained her approach to the Sociological Record thusly:

“I knock on the door, I say โ€˜hello,โ€™ and I shake hands.”

She returned to many houses over the years, photographing people inside and outside their homes. She also captured landscapes, cities, animals, and family life in all its glorious mundanity.

Rydet’s project began when she observed office cubicles at a car factory in Jelcz, a town near Wrocล‚aw:

“Although they were identical, they differed a great deal, because the people working there decorated them with what they liked to look at… The things I saw! Beautiful girls and holy icons. Jazz stars and photos of children. Hunting trophies and rosaries. Each person marked his space with his personality. And thatโ€™s how it began.”

Zofia Rydet is a young white woman with short dark curly hair. She stands in the centre wearing a white full-length coat. She is surrounded by five male photographers. They are all looking at their cameras, standing in the woods
Zofia Rydet is an older white woman with short light curly hair. She is smiling as she walks in a field. She has two cameras around her neck, and a bag around her shoulder. A large rural house and tree is in the background
Zofia Rydet is a middle-aged white woman with light wavy hair done up in a beehive. She sits in a large office with a crowded bookcase and various photos and vases with flowers
Zofia Rydet is an elderly white woman wearing a full-length raincot and a knee-length dress with white shoes. She is taking a photo outdoors, next to two large cabins
Zofia Rydet is an older white woman with short light curly hair. She stands against a wall taking the photo of a man who is seated. Another older woman watches from the back of a small, crowded living room
Zofia Rydet is an older white woman with hair whispy hair tied back. She is leaning forward with her hand out, as if she does not want her photo taken. She stands in front of an older car from the 1940s or 50s, outdoors in a long road
Zofia Rydet is an older white woman with short light wavy hair. She hunches on the ground wearing a long cardigan and a skirt. She is photographing an ornate velour couch with a photograph of two people and a vase with flowers. In the background hangs an instrument
Zofia Rydet is an elderly white woman with short dark curly hair, wearing a long dress with vertical stripes. She is holding a small electronic camera. She stands in front an exhibition of her work
Zofia Rydet is an elderly white woman with short dark curly hair. She has a hunched back. She is speaking with an elderly couple who are seated having their photograph taken. They are in a room with ornate flower-patterened wallpaper, and a folkloric painting of a man and a woman in the background, and various photos on a mantel
Zofia Rydet is an elderly white woman with short curly hair. She is kneeling and smiling as she photographs a white older man who is smiling behind his office desk
Zofia Rydet is a middle-aged white woman with dark wavy hair done up in a beehive. She looks through a camera lens with a determined expression

Sociological inspirations

Photographer David Campany shows that many non-sociologists have used their ideas of sociology in their photographic projects. He notes that, unlike sociology, which uses visual information as data, photographers use sociology to invite exploration of ambiguities:

“My feeling is that what really fascinates us about sociologically motivated photographic projects is that we donโ€™t know quite how to take them, how to read them, what to make of them… Such projects continue to fascinate and generate intensive discussion more because of their provocative methods than for any clear evidence or โ€˜dataโ€™ they offer. They can force a reflection upon assumptions and they are significant precisely because of their irresolvable complexities. I donโ€™t look at any of these projects simply for โ€˜informationโ€™ the way we might turn on a tap to get water, or go to a dictionary for a definition. I go to them because the tension between the brute clarity of the visual information, combined with a poetics of form and the lack of clarity about what we might do with those things itself fascinating and challenging.”

Black and white photo of a woman waring a scarf standing at the doorway of a kitchen, with a man out of focus behind her. The stove is made of beautiful ceramic tiles with painted flowers
Zalipie 1967
Black and white photo of two white women. One is a nurse looking concerned, with her arm around a frail patient
Kaszuby 1977
Black and white photo of a dog stands in front of a tiny hut, beside a house
Zubrowka 1980
Black and white photo of a white middle-aged woman standing with her hands on ther hips, in front of a wooden house, with cats at her feet
Lubeskie 1980
Black and white photo of a pole with socialist posters. A multi-storey building is the background
Pomerania 1981
Black and white photo of an older white woman who is smiling at her doorway. A chicken is walking on the right and a bike is on the left
Kaszuby 1981
Black and white photo of a white man repairing a bike in a shed, surrounded by many tools and tires
Chocholow 1981, Bator
Black and white photo of a young woman holding a large rake. She wears a scarf on her head and knee-high boots and a long skirt. She stands in the middle of the road with three cows behind her
Chocholow 1981, Bronisล‚awa Mniszak
Black and white photo of a two-storey house with beautiful paintings of flowers and plants along the outer wall
Kaszuby 1982
Black and white photo of a statue of a person being eaten by a lion, with another statue of a man in the middle of a large garden
Kaszuby 1982
Black and white photo of a triple storey house in the background and a large garden with tall trees
Kaszuby 1982
Black and white photo of a triple storey building in a surburban area behind a gate
Kaszuby 1982
Black and white photo of a two-story house on a suburban street
Pomerania 1983
Black and white photo of an older woman standing in front of a massive wooden door. She wears a headscarf
Bialy Dunajec-1984, Anna Stachowiec (72 y/o)

Visual sociology

We have delved into visual sociology many times here at Sociology at Work.

Visual sociology is a set of theories and methodologies used to convey sociological ideas. This means that a sociologist must produce visuals (videos, pictures and so on) as part of their sociological critique, evaluation or analysis of social phenomena. Alternatively, visual sociology involves a sociologist devising a study or program where clients or research participants produce visuals as part of the research project, or a program outcome.

Visual sociology is not merely an analysis of images. Instead, it delivers a non-written representation of a social problem as its primary product or outcome.

For example, we have previously deep-dived into Professor Cathy Greenblat’s photography of dementia, along with Phyllis Braudy Harris’s work on art therapy. If you are a sociology graduate looking for alternative careers, this is yet another way in which you can use sociology outside academia to support communities.

Earlier this year, we reviewed Professor Ridhi Kashyap’s creation of a data visualisation dashboard to track gender inequity in internet and mobile phone use. This is a helpful example of an applied sociological work outcome, as many of us who work outside universities must ‘translate’ sociological research into visual tools, to help non-experts make decisions.

We also explored the work of Professor Ruby Lai, who transformed her research on Hong Kongโ€™s subdivided flats into an interdisciplinary art exhibition. This work demonstrates the power of multidisciplinary collaboration, to encourage the public to engage with sociological critiques in a more accessible way.

Explore our previous exploration of visual sociology in the resources below.

A smiling elderly couple in black and white
Art Therapy, Visual Sociology and Dementia Awareness
Aerial view of three people in a small, crowded space, beside plants and clothes.
Visual Sociology of Housing Crisis
A Chinese woman wearing sunglasses and earphones smiles as she looks at her mobile
Visual Sociology of Digital Gender Gap

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