[9] In 1956, the Polish government began awarding subsidies to encourage new and original art forms; Kraków suddenly emerged as a center of avant-garde jazz, painting, theater and filmmaking.

After graduating from Pratt in 1962, Horowitz began working in film and television and graphic design companies, including a stint as Art Director for Grey Advertising.

He has developed a successful career in both fine art and commercial photography, but is most well-known for creating complex photographic composites, which have been compared to the surrealist artworks of Magritte and Dalí.

Early in his career, to obtain such effects, Horowitz used a multitude of photographic techniques such as darkroom retouching, multiple film exposures and manipulation of his camera.

Hometown, directed by Mateusz Kudła and Anna Kokoszka-Romer, telling the story of the childhood and youth of Ryszard Horowitz and his friend Roman Polanski, whom he met in the Krakow ghetto.