Varso Tower in Warsaw – architectural photography session
In mid-2022, the Chicago headquarters of Epstein Global contacted me with a request to produce an architectural photography series of the Varso Tower in Warsaw. The Warsaw branch of the practice acted as the local architect for the investment, while the main design was developed by Foster + Partners. The architects shared a set of general guidelines outlining their expectations for the shoot. At the same time, they emphasised that, as someone who knows the city and the site well, I had full freedom in the way I presented their latest project.
Different scales of perceiving architecture
Photographing a building of this scale required a different approach than usual. In my view, limiting the work to one or two days and focusing only on close surroundings would not have been sufficient. Varso has become a dominant element of Warsaw’s skyline, so I felt it was important to show the building across multiple scales. I began with urban-scale images, analysing compositional axes of streets closed by the tower and searching for distant viewpoints, including locations such as the Siekierkowski Bridge, from which the building’s presence in the city panorama is clearly visible. The next stage focused on the pedestrian scale, capturing the immediate surroundings from which the entire volume can be perceived. From there, I moved closer to the entrance zone and explored less obvious perspectives that emerged during the shoot. Photographing façade details was an essential part of the process. As the building is located along some of the city’s busiest streets, I became curious about how it is experienced by drivers passing by. This point of view also found its way into the photographic narrative.
Interiors, drone photography, and changing weather conditions
The session also included photographs of the impressive lobby interiors, as well as images taken on the observation terrace at the top of the building. To show the spire and the full scale of the tower in relation to the city, I carried out drone photography from various locations across Warsaw. Although the main shoot took place in summer, I felt the material was not yet complete. I wanted to see how the building would appear under different atmospheric conditions. In autumn, I returned to supplement the series with images taken during morning fog, which gave the tower a distinctly atmospheric and painterly quality.
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