Jan Malarski was born on 24 June 1883. His first photography studio, which he ran together with Karol Tawrel, was at 57 Nowy Świat Street in Warsaw. Malarski was a prominent portrait photographer, especially known for his portraits of theatre actors and theatre performance photography. In the 1910s he was the official authorised photographer of Government Theatres artists. From 1920 until the late 1930s he ran his own studio at 10 Chmielna Street, where he captured portraits of many of Warsaw’s interwar residents. It was during this period that he took photographs of ORT Warsaw students’ work. He also took a photo of an ORT exhibit at the Technicum in Vilna, which was part of Poland at the time, today Vilnius, Lithuania. [see images].

Jan Malarski died in Lodz on 1 August 1959. He is buried at the Bródno Cemetery in Warsaw.