ANDRES KOSSOWSKI
1929 -2005
FAMILY ARCHIVE
A Note About My Father
This page is a small personal archive and tribute to my father, Andres Kossowski — born Andrzej Kossowski in Poland, and later known by the English form Andre.
His life carried the marks of a remarkable century. As a boy, he lived through the Second World War, was caught up with his brothers in the Warsaw Uprising, and survived capture and internment in a labour camp. In the years that followed, he crossed continents in search of a new life - from post-war Europe to the United States, Venezuela, the Netherlands and eventually South Africa.
He was an engineer, photogrammetrist, journalist, artist and explorer, but to me he was also the person whose stories, journeys and curiosity helped shape my own way of looking at the world.
Much of what I now look for in photography - patience, atmosphere, place, memory and the quiet pull of a landscape - was influenced by the life he lived, the stories he carried, and the way he continued to observe the world throughout his life.
A Life in Movement
1929
Born near Warsaw, Poland, as Andrzej Kossowski.
1944
As a young teenager, lived through the Warsaw Uprising with his brothers. He was captured and interned in a labour camp, surviving the war years before beginning a new life beyond Poland.
1946
Completed his studies in France, receiving his Baccalaureate certification.
Late 1940s
Left Europe by ship for the United States before later following his elder brother’s path to South America, where new opportunities were opening in Venezuela.
1950s
Settled in Venezuela during a period of optimism, risk and adventure. He became involved in broadcasting, journalism and travel across South America, while also continuing to draw, paint and photograph.
1952
Received a Diploma in Topography in Caracas, with the commendation “Sobresaliente en Topografía”.
1950s–1960s
Worked in mapping and exploration, including areas around the Orinoco, at times spending months away in remote regions drawing up routes and maps.
1960–1961
Studied photogrammetry at the International Training Centre for Aerial Survey in the Netherlands, qualifying as an ITC Photogrammetric Technician.
Early 1960s
Met Danuta Niewiarowicz in Switzerland. She had recently completed her medical degree and had travelled there for cancer treatment. They fell in love and married soon afterwards.
Early 1960s
Andres and Danuta chose South Africa as the place to begin their new life together.
1966–1967
Settled as a family in South Africa, first in Pretoria and then Cape Town. I was born in 1966.
1967–1993
Worked for the City of Cape Town, where he helped build the Photogrammetric Mapping Section and contributed to the city’s mapping and planning work.
2005
Passed away on 25 September, his birthday, leaving behind a life shaped by survival, movement, curiosity, art, exploration and family.
POLAND / FRANCE
Early Life and War
Andres Kossowski was born Andrzej Kossowski near Warsaw, Poland, on 25 September 1929, to Zygmunt Kossowski and Zofia Kossowska, née Wilkowska. He grew up with his brothers Lesław and Jerzy in a family whose early life would soon be overtaken by the upheaval of the Second World War.
As a boy, he lived through events that would have shaped anyone far beyond their years. During the Warsaw Uprising, he and his brothers became caught up in the conflict. He was still very young when he was captured and interned in a labour camp, surviving those years before eventually beginning life again beyond Poland.
The war also brought deep personal loss. His father died shortly after the end of the Second World War, and his mother passed away a few years later. For Andres and his brothers, the years that followed were marked by displacement, resilience and the search for a future outside the devastation of post-war Europe.
After completing his studies in France in 1946, where he received his Baccalaureate certification, Andres began the next part of his life. By the late 1940s, he left Europe by ship for the United States, before later following his elder brother’s path to South America and the possibilities opening in Venezuela.
Andrzej Kossowski 1945VENEZUELA
Television, Journalism and Exploration
TV journalist for the TV station, Mariano $& CO, later promar TV.By the late 1940s, Andres had left Europe by ship and first settled in the United States. It was not long, however, before South America began to call. His elder brother Lesław had travelled to Venezuela to explore new opportunities, and Andres soon followed him there.
Venezuela in the 1950s offered the kind of possibility that suited his restless and adventurous nature. It was a period of optimism, expansion and discovery, and Andres became involved in one of the country’s pioneering media initiatives: the founding of Promar TV, Venezuela’s first private television station.
As one of the original co-founders, he helped support the station during its early years. He also worked as a journalist, travelling through parts of South America to gather news and stories for broadcast. These journeys took him across countries and into the political and cultural life of the region, including Cuba during a turbulent period that would soon become associated with the Bay of Pigs.
Alongside this work, Andres continued to draw, paint and photograph. One of the small works from this period was a portrait of Pepsi, his favourite schnauzer, which became a reminder that even during years of movement and uncertainty, his eye was always drawn to character, detail and companionship. His photography also took on a new energy with his exploration and, at times, portraits of human relationships, such as Mother and Child (est. mid-1950’s).
His work in Venezuela gradually moved from broadcasting and journalism toward mapping and exploration. He became involved in charting areas around the Orinoco, including regions that were still poorly documented at the time. He would sometimes disappear for months into remote areas, drawing up routes and maps undertaking practical work, but also the kind of field experience that matched his instinct for discovery.
This period helped shape the direction of his professional life. The landscapes, journeys and mapping work of Venezuela led him more deeply into topography, photogrammetry and aerial survey - fields that would define much of his later career.
MAPPING / THE NETHERLANDS
Mapping the Unseen
The journeys Andres made through Venezuela gradually moved him from journalism and broadcasting into the more technical world of mapping. Around the Orinoco, he became involved in work that required patience, accuracy and a willingness to spend long periods in remote and difficult terrain.
Some of these areas were still poorly documented at the time. Andres would sometimes be away for months, helping to draw up routes, maps and records of places that were only beginning to be formally surveyed. It was work that combined practical field discipline with the same adventurous curiosity that had already carried him across continents.
In February 1952, he received a Diploma in Topography in Caracas, with the commendation “Sobresaliente en Topografía”. His interest in mapping continued to deepen, eventually leading him to the Netherlands, where he studied at the International Training Centre for Aerial Survey between September 1960 and November 1961.
There, he completed a course in Photogrammetric Engineering and qualified as an ITC Photogrammetric Technician. Photogrammetry, the science of using photographs to measure and map the world, became one of the defining disciplines of his professional life.
For Andres, this was more than technical work. Mapping demanded a particular way of seeing: patient, exact, observant and alert to the relationship between land, distance and detail. In many ways, it echoed the same instinct that appeared in his painting, photography and later in the stories that shaped my own imagination.
Photogrammetry - New Builds in Venezuela SWITZERLAND / SOUTH AFRICA
Danuta and a New Life
While Andres was in Europe for his photogrammetry studies, another turning point entered his life. Through family friends in Switzerland, he was asked to help chaperone Danuta Niewiarowicz, who had recently completed her medical degree and had travelled there for medical treatment.
What began as a family connection soon became something far more personal. Andres and Danuta fell in love, and not long after meeting, they married in Switzerland.
At that stage of his life, Andres had already crossed countries and continents in search of work, purpose and possibility. Together, he and Danuta considered where they might begin their new life. They eventually chose South Africa, moving there in the early 1960s and starting again in a country that would become home.
They first settled in Pretoria, where I was born in 1966, before moving to Cape Town in 1967. There, Andres joined the City of Cape Town as a qualified engineering technician. Over the years that followed, he helped build the Photogrammetric Mapping Section, applying his knowledge of aerial survey and mapping to the city’s development and planning work.
He remained with the City Council until his retirement in July 1993. It was a quieter chapter than the years of ships, broadcasts, journeys and remote mapping expeditions, but it carried the same underlying discipline: a patient, precise and observant way of understanding land, place and distance.
Danuta Niewiarowicz. A Lifelong partnerART / PHOTOGRAPHY
Art, Photography and Curiosity
Joining my father. PHOTOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT. Early 1970’s.Art & photography continued throughout his time.
Among his early works was a portrait of Pepsi, his much-loved schnauzer, painted during his Venezuela years. It was a small subject, but a revealing one: an animal observed with affection, patience and character. That same instinct appeared throughout his life, whether he was looking at landscapes, people, animals, routes, maps or distant places.
Although engineering and mapping became his professional life, Andres’s love of art began much earlier. In the 1940s, while living in Montmartre, Paris, he had dreamed of pursuing formal art studies. Limited means and the pull of new opportunities took him in another direction, but he never stopped drawing, painting or photographing the world around him.
His adventurous spirit also remained part of family life. In the 1970s, he sometimes set off on solitary journeys, including trips into Namibia, then South West Africa, and Etosha. He would return with stories that captured my imagination as a child. These were stories of open spaces, long roads, animals, heat, silence and the sense of being far from the familiar.
In later years, Andres gave more time to art and photography. He continued to observe and record the world with the same quiet fascination that had shaped his work as a mapper and explorer. Looking back, I can see how much of my own photography was influenced by that atmosphere: the patience to wait, the attention to place, and the feeling that every landscape carries a story if you look at it closely enough.
Pepsi, 1950, Venezuela
MOTHER & CHILD, 1950's, Venezuela
LABOUR OF LOVE, 1970's, SOUTH AFRICAPAINTINGS
Paintings from the Family Archive
Alongside his work in mapping, engineering and photography, Andres continued to paint throughout his life. His paintings were often quiet observations of the subjects that stayed close to him — animals, landscapes, people and places remembered from different chapters of his journey.
This small selection from the family archive offers a glimpse into that private creative world. The works reflect the same patient curiosity that shaped his maps, his photographs, his travels and the stories he carried through his life.
Desert Landscape, Namibia
Andres Kossowski
Circa 1970’s (estimate)
Arniston Village, Arniston/ Kassiesbaai, South Africa
Andres Kossowski
1983
Aloe, Kirstenbosch, South Africa
Andres Kossowski
Circa 1980’s (estimate)
A LEGACY OF SEEING
What I Inherited
My father passed away on 25 September 2005, on his birthday. What he left behind was not only a record of places mapped, paintings made, photographs taken or stories told, but a particular way of paying attention.
He had lived through war, crossed oceans, helped build new ventures, mapped distant landscapes, followed stories across South America, raised a family in South Africa, and continued to draw, paint and photograph throughout his life. Across all of it, there was a constant thread: curiosity.
That curiosity is part of what I inherited from him. It is there in the way I look at landscapes, wildlife, coastlines, weather, silence and memory. It is there in the patience to wait, the need to notice, and the belief that every place carries something worth seeing.
This page is a small tribute to that inheritance — and to a life lived across countries, disciplines, risks, journeys and quiet acts of observation.
