During the preparations to 30-year anniversary of foundation of Speleoklub Warszawski, its members were thinking of a way to commemorate a fellow caver, Waldek Burkacki, who had passed away just few months earlier. One of the members, Andrzej Mańkowski "Maniu¶" said:
"Let's make a photo contest".
Everybody agreed: "Waldek loved photography so much".
The Contest was soon announced, letters of information sent to fellow cavers in Poland and Europe.
At the beginning of the 1980s, most of Speleoklub's life spun around "Wiercica" - club mag. The flat of our member - Mirka Kropiwnicka, who hosted the meetings of Wiercica editorial squad, became the address to where the contest photos were submitted. Just like now, the authors marked their works with signs, which gave the editorial squad lots of fun when attempting to figure out whose handwriting was present on an envelope. It is said that noone has ever succeeded in telling at that stage who submitted their work.
1987's diploma:
Although the name of the Cave Photography Contest did not contain the word "international", friends of our members from Morawy submitted their works. The first contests vary from the IVth Contest of 2004 and the current edition in the way that there were a few categories then and the works were submitted under the categories of cave photography and cave sites which were further divided into categories of pictures and slides, that where very popular in the 80's.
The prizes were always in cash. One of the contestants - Lalka
> Podobińska says in 1984 she was awarded PLN 2,000 for winning IIIrd place. Since the beginning, there was also a special prize awarded by "Wiercica". The prize of the public always arouse some commotion. Mirek Burkacki remembers when during the second edition in 1985 somebody approached him and said in a regretful tone: "I cannot give my vote to any of the works, because they are far worse than the contest banner" - the banner always contained a photo made by Waldek Burkacki.
In 1985 there were three votes in favour of awarding a prize to a photo made by Waldek.
In the 80's the post-contest exhibitions accompanied other events, which had had the Communist government approval. But one always had to remain cautious. During Speleokonfrontacje (annual meeting of Polish cavers) in Serock, during which an exhibition of the IInd Contest was displayed, there was a threat that the police might appear, because someone wrote in the toilet "Precz z wron±" - which was one of the more popular anti-regime slogans at a time. The club members managed to convince the lady in Serock not to call the police.
The IVth edition of the Contest was announced twice. First, in 1989, but very few works were submitted, most of which were of poor quality, which was the reason the IVth Cave Photography Contest had to put off until 2004 which also witnessed the 50th anniversary of Speleoklub foundation.
