Jerzy Chojnacki “Chojna” was born on 20 December 1909 in Lublin. He studied sculpture at the State Timber Industry School in Zakopane (1923-1928), at the State School for Decorative and Industrial Arts in Kraków (1928-1933) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1933-1939). During the Rising, he was active as a photo-reporter under a permit issued by Col. Stanisław Steczkowski ”Zagończyk”, the commander of the Home Army’s Sub-District IV, District I “Warsaw – City Centre”. He worked in the Old Town, photographing the area along Piwna, Podwale, Miodowa and Długa streets. He was evacuated with the civilian population. He was transported to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp via the transit camp in Pruszków, and later on to Mauthausen-Gusen. Sent as a forced labourer to Vienna, he returned to Warsaw in 1945 . Connected with the Saska Kępa neighbourhood in Warsaw for many years after the war, he was an active sculptor and art promoter, and took part in many exhibitions. He received numerous prizes and distinctions for his artistic achievements. His best recognised  work is the stature of the Varsovian Mermaid in the Praga district. Chojnacki died on 26 May 1988 in Warsaw.

The subject of his photographs was decided by his superiors, which is perhaps why Chojnacki’s images represent the most accurate known photographic documentation of the Old Town’s barricades, trenches and fortifications. The negatives which were sent on the orders of the military authorities to a laboratory in Warsaw’s City Centre to be printed were lost. The only ones that remain are those that were buried in the courtyard of a house at 40 Freta Street before the evacuation of the Old Town  (15 films out of 50 exposed, in 6x9 cm format). Chojnacki photographed the Rising with his own SLR camera, with materials obtained from the Sub-District’s command and the resources he had gathered himself before the outbreak of the Rising.