https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Recent content in A Portrait of the Reporter on kapuscinski.infoHugoen-USMon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter-polish-editions-and-isbn/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter-polish-editions-and-isbn/<p>Below is a working list of Polish editions of <strong>&ldquo;A Portrait of the Reporter&rdquo;</strong> (<em>Autoportret reportera</em>) by Ryszard Kapuściński. ISBN numbers are included only where they could be confirmed in bibliographic and bookselling catalogues.</p> <h2 id="polish-editions">Polish Editions</h2> <p><strong>First Edition</strong> Year of publication: 2003 Date of publication: 30 September 2003 Publisher: Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak Print run: 40,000 copies Number of pages: 143, [1] ISBN: 83-240-0347-9 / 978-83-240-0347-1</p> <p><strong>2008 Edition</strong> Year of publication: 2008 Publisher: Agora Series: Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej, vol. 9 Catalogue designation: 3rd edition Number of pages: 99, [4] ISBN: 978-83-7552-119-1</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/reporter-by-vocation-review-of-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/reporter-by-vocation-review-of-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/<p>Ryszard Kapuściński is a reporter by vocation — this thought comes to mind very powerfully during a reading of <em>A Portrait of the Reporter</em>. One can also say that he is a journalist by vocation, a writer by vocation. A genuine authority for many young people beginning to write. Today, when what counts is the pursuit of money and the pursuit of sensation, the image of the Reporter presented in this publication has an extraordinary value.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/faces-of-the-media-live-with-ryszard-kapuscinski-on-tvp1-26-november-2003/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/faces-of-the-media-live-with-ryszard-kapuscinski-on-tvp1-26-november-2003/<p><strong>&ldquo;Faces of the Media&rdquo; Live with Ryszard Kapuściński on TVP1, 26 November 2003</strong></p> <p><strong>Piotr Kraśko:</strong> Unfortunately very few Polish journalists are someone about whom everyone, without the slightest hesitation, will say: an authority. There is certainly one. Some call him a living legend of Polish and world reportage. When he travels he does not write; when he writes he cuts himself off from the world. He chisels his text. He can sit over three sentences for a whole day. He uses neither computer nor internet. He began as a journalist at <em>Sztandar Młodych</em>. It was then that he made his literary debut with the reportage collection <em><a href="https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/the-polish-bush/">Bush po polsku</a></em>. That is the only cycle in his output on a domestic theme. Then for many years he worked as a foreign correspondent for the PAP news agency in Asia, Africa, and South America. He was a witness to almost 30 revolutions. Many times he came close to death. But he is also the most translated Polish writer. His books have been translated into 25 languages. He became a literary discoverer of the Third World countries. About himself, about the media, about journalism he has in fact not spoken in any of his books until now. But recently an extraordinary work has been created: <em>A Portrait of the Reporter</em> — a mosaic of excerpts from interviews he has given to Polish and foreign media.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter-review-by-mariusz-szczygiel/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter-review-by-mariusz-szczygiel/<p><strong>Author:</strong> Mariusz Szczygieł. <strong>Source:</strong> <em>Gazeta Wyborcza</em>. <strong>Date of publication:</strong> 1 October 2003.</p> <hr> <p>These are excerpts from interviews given by Ryszard Kapuściński: reflections on reportage, on travel, on poverty, on the media.</p> <p>As is well known, Ryszard Kapuściński sees the world globally (unlike us, who look locally). When Francis Fukuyama came to Poland to explain why the end of history had not arrived, Kapuściński was invited to debate with him, because he &ldquo;assembles fragments of general truths into a whole, paying no attention to smaller, more uncertain ones&rdquo; (as was written in <em>Voice Literary Supplement</em>). To intellectuals who today only browse books because they cannot read them (time ever shorter, stimuli ever more numerous, the character of civilisation ever more flickering) — to those neurotic consumers of culture — Kapuściński suggests what is important. What we regard as obvious, he rediscovers for us. He knows how superficial we are, so he even adapted his philosophical <em>Lapidaria</em> to our capacities.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter-review-by-piotr-bratkowski/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter-review-by-piotr-bratkowski/<p><strong>Author:</strong> Piotr Bratkowski. <strong>Source:</strong> <em>Newsweek Polska</em>, No. 39. <strong>Date of publication:</strong> 2003.</p> <hr> <p>Complaining about a falsified image of the world in the media is hypocrisy. We ourselves choose the information that is most convenient for us — argues Ryszard Kapuściński.</p> <p>I go to meet Ryszard Kapuściński fresh from reading his <em>A Portrait of the Reporter</em> — a book he essentially did not write. It was prepared by Znak Publishers on the basis of interviews he gave, excerpts from his lectures and media appearances. These were assembled so as to give a clear picture of the great reporter&rsquo;s journalistic philosophy and his diagnosis of the transformations the world has undergone over the last half century. The volume will appear in bookshops in a few days.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/faces-of-the-media-on-tvp-meeting-with-ryszard-kapuscinski/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/faces-of-the-media-on-tvp-meeting-with-ryszard-kapuscinski/<p><strong>&ldquo;Faces of the Media&rdquo; Live with Ryszard Kapuściński on TVP1, 26 November 2003</strong></p> <p><strong>Piotr Kraśko: Unfortunately very few Polish journalists are someone about whom everyone, without the slightest hesitation, will say: an authority. There is certainly one.</strong></p> <p><em>Some call him a living legend of Polish and world reportage. When he travels he does not write; when he writes he cuts himself off from the world. He chisels his text. He can sit over three sentences for a whole day. He uses neither computer nor internet. He began as a journalist at &ldquo;Sztandar Młodych&rdquo;. It was then that he made his literary debut with the reportage collection &ldquo;<a href="https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/the-polish-bush/">Bush po polsku</a>&rdquo;. That is the only cycle in his output on a domestic theme. Then for many years he worked as a foreign correspondent for the PAP news agency in Asia, Africa, and South America. He was a witness to almost 30 revolutions. Many times he came close to death. But he is also the most translated Polish writer. His books have been translated into 25 languages. He became a literary discoverer of the Third World countries.</em></p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/you-cannot-know-everything-review-of-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/you-cannot-know-everything-review-of-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/<p><strong>Author:</strong> Jerzy Rohoziński. <strong>Source:</strong> <em>Nowe Książki</em>, No. 1/2004. <strong>Date of publication:</strong> 2004.</p> <hr> <p>Kapuściński can be liked or disliked. Those who value in a reporter the ability to discreetly &ldquo;hide behind&rdquo; the described matter, the art of allowing the reader an intimate encounter with the described world — those who, in a word, are bothered in Kapuściński&rsquo;s reportages by the fact that there is too much Kapuściński himself in them — will, among the classics of Polish reportage, prefer the less self-absorbed Budrewicz. Those, however, who like the reporter to be the principal hero of his account, a guide, a moral authority, and an oracle, will worship precisely Kapuściński.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/<p><strong>First Edition.</strong> Year of publication: 30 September 2003. Print run: 40,000 copies.</p> <p>The book consists of statements by the master of reportage devoted to, among other things, travel itself, the method of creation, and the function of public media. The writer himself accepted the portrait that emerged from his accounts: that of a man, a traveller, an artist, a penetrating commentator on the world surrounding us. The selection of conversation excerpts was made by Krystyna Strączek.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/excerpts-from-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/excerpts-from-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/<p>Writing poetry began spontaneously, with no dreams or expectations. I wrote poems, but all of them very bad. I was under the influence of Mayakovsky at the time, but managed to imitate only his &ldquo;staircases.&rdquo; The poems were most often occasional ones, and it was precisely they that introduced me to journalism, even during my school days. When the editorial office of <em>Sztandar Młodych</em> was being established, I was offered work. I said I had to take my school-leaving examinations; they waited for me. Literally the day after passing all the exams I began working in the editorial office. That I became a journalist I owe to poetry — not the best, but mine. What I dreamed of was to play for the Polish national team in goal.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/meeting-at-radio-trojka-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/meeting-at-radio-trojka-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/<p>On Saturday, 8 November 2003 at 5:00 p.m., a meeting with Ryszard Kapuściński took place in the Agnieszka Osiecka Concert Studio. The hostess and moderator was Barbara Marcinik.</p> <p>The guests gathered in the studio had a unique opportunity to discuss with the master of Polish reportage his latest book, published by the Znak publishing house. Ryszard Kapuściński on himself, on the secrets of his own profession, and on the world of contemporary media. The book was created from excerpts of several dozen selected conversations and lectures by Kapuściński.</p>https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/press-reviews-of-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000https://kapuscinski.info/en/books/a-portrait-of-the-reporter/press-reviews-of-a-portrait-of-the-reporter/<p>• 2003 <strong>Gazeta Wyborcza</strong>, 1 Oct., p. 14. <em>A Portrait of the Reporter.</em> Review by Mariusz Szczygieł.</p> <p>• 2003 <em>Newsweek Polska</em>, No. 21. <em>In the Labyrinth of the Century.</em> Review by Wiesław Kot.</p> <p>• 2003 <strong>Newsweek Polska</strong>, No. 39. <em>Reporter of the Postmodern Age.</em> Review by Piotr Bratkowski.</p> <p>• 2003 <em>Gazeta Wyborcza</em>, 26 Sep. <em>Kapuściński&rsquo;s New Book.</em> Review by Wojciech Pelowski.</p> <p>• 2003 <em>Rzeczpospolita</em>, 29 Sep. <em>Writing Is an Eternal Beginning.</em> Review by Bartosz Marzec.</p>