Wanda Zwinogrodzka, a senior official at Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, granted the award to Czapliński in Warsaw on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The ceremony took place at the opening of New York, New York, a new exhibition of Czapliński’s photographs at the Royal Łazienki Museum.
Born in 1953 in the central Polish city of Łódź, Czapliński has since 1979 been splitting his time between Warsaw and New York, where he graduated from the New York Institute of Photography, the PAP news agency reported.
During a career spanning four decades, he has photographed some of the biggest celebrities from the worlds of business and culture, politics and sport, according to officials.
Czapliński’s subjects have included the boxer Muhammad Ali, supermodel Cindy Crawford and writer Umberto Eco, as well as former US President Richard Nixon, film director Roman Polanski and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, among many others.
His photographs have featured in prestigious publications all over the world, including The New York Times, Time magazine and The Washington Post, the PAP news agency reported.
Czapliński has authored or co-authored over 30 albums and books, notably about the composer Fryderyk Chopin, pop singer Michael Jackson and tennis player Wojciech Fibak.
His photographs have been showcased in more than 300 individual and collective exhibitions, including at the Zachęta National Art Gallery in Warsaw, the Museum of Art in Łódź and the National Museum in Warsaw, as well as abroad, including in London, Brussels and New York, according to officials.
The New York, New York exhibition comprises some 60 photographs documenting "life in the Big Apple, which has become Czapliński’s second home,” the Polish culture ministry said.
The photos capture New York’s monumental buildings, as well as scenes from city life, from winter in Central Park to firefighters in action and pedestrians en route to work, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl