Among the many people of Jewish origin who have made a significant contribution to Polish culture, there are many prominent Krakow Jews. Painters and architects occupy a prominent place in this group. However, in addition to them, we can mention the propagators of culture – booksellers, printers and photographers who immortalised on photographs the dynamically changing Krakow in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ignacy Krieger (1817-1889), who came to Krakow with his wife and children in 1860, was characterised by an extraordinary passion for photography. He was born in the hamlet of Mikołaj, near Wadowice. Little information about his private life has been preserved. We know that in the 1850s he lived in Lipnik, from where he travelled abroad to gain knowledge about photography.

When Krieger settled in Krakow, he established his atelier in Grodzka Street, but it operated there for a very short time. Then he moved it to a tenement house at the corner of the Main Market Square and St. John’s Street.

As a photographer, he quickly gained recognition in Krakow, and in 1864 he managed to establish a branch of his studio in Tarnów. Throughout his career, Krieger used the technique of wet collodion in his work. It gave the possibility to obtain any number of prints and was more effective than the daguerreotype. It proved to be cheaper, simpler and produced beautiful, clear images. In the 1880s, in accordance with the trends of the time, he changed this technique to bromo-gelatine.

Krieger’s workshop did not limit itself to the service function, i.e. making portraits of Cracovians. He began to specialise in photographs of numerous objects in the city. The transformations of Krakow, including the renovation and rebuilding of the Cloth Hall, were recorded on sets of films created over the years. In addition, Krieger offered reproductions of works of art, and photographs of architecture from church treasuries, museums and collections. The photographer was also interested in the surrounding areas – he immortalised the inhabitants of villages near Krakow. In his collection there were preserved many so-called folk figures: e.g. highlanders (Górale) and Huculs.

Krieger died in 1889 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Krakow. He left a prosperous company to his children, whom he trained professionally. In 1929, Amalia Krieger donated her many thousands of glass negatives and ateliers to the municipality of Krakow.

Currently, they are stored in the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow and represent a great value as historical sources.