A cultural institution opens a new home once every many years. There’s no second attempt: guests, artists and the media all show up on a single evening, and the material from that day keeps working for months afterwards on the website and in communications.
In April 2026 I photographed the opening of the new space of Instytut Fotografii Fort at Fort Mokotów in Warsaw. The client called it, in so many words, the biggest event of the year for the institution. The same evening saw the launch of two exhibitions: “W podróży służbowej” by Kuba Dąbrowski and “Trylogia rodzinna” by Christopher Anderson and Marion Durand.
What happened
The evening had several layers, and each needed different material.
Speeches and meetings with the artists are reportage work. Curators, artists and guests asking questions – these moments last only a while and can’t be repeated. I was by the stage before anyone reached for the microphone.
The space itself was the evening’s second protagonist. A former photography studio, high ceilings, old windows covered in ivy. I photographed the exhibition halls both empty and later full of people, so the institution would have both contexts: the architecture and the turnout.
Then there were the tours, conversations, books being signed by the window. Material the institution can use to show partners and the public that the place was packed and that the new home is alive.
What I paid attention to
A photographers’ vernissage is watched by a different audience than a conference: people who look at photographs professionally themselves. The material has to withstand that gaze.
The best shots from an evening like this are often away from the main hall. A window wrapped in ivy, a guest inside leafing through a book – one frame says more about the place than any description. I look for these scenes alongside the official programme.
I also kept an eye on the branding: the engraved logo on the glass doors, exhibition posters, the lettering on the facade. These are the photos that later work in every publication about the new home.
Result
The institute commissioned the material for its own promotion: for the website and for communicating the new space. The event has a dedicated page on fiff.org.pl, and the opening was covered by media including Fotopolis and Polskie Radio Trójka.
