A vernissage plays by different rules than a conference. There is no slide-by-slide agenda. There is art on the walls, there are guests who came to see it, and there is one evening in which everything has to happen.
In late June 2026 I photographed the vernissage of the STARS. FANGOR. SYLWESTROWICZ. exhibition at the Centrum Bankowo-Finansowe on Nowy Świat in Warsaw, right next to the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The exhibition juxtaposes Wojciech Fangor’s last cycle of paintings with the works of Professor Arkadiusz Sylwestrowicz. The evening was covered by national media, and a crowd of guests from business, culture and media filled the rooms to the last passage.
What happened
I started before the guests arrived. Empty rooms with the paintings, the marble floor, the interior architecture – these shots happen once, then the space belongs to people. There was a humanoid robot and the exhibition partner’s car outside the entrance, so the opening material had character right away.
The official part consisted of speeches against the exhibition backdrop wall and the audience listening intently. Then a musician played the double bass. I photograph a live performance in two layers: the full figure on stage plus a detail of the hands on the strings, because the report needs both.
The rest of the evening was taken up by guests at the paintings, conversations over wine and networking on the terrace. At a vernissage the best shots make themselves: it is enough to notice the person who paused in front of a canvas a second longer than everyone else.
What I pay attention to at a vernissage
The art is the protagonist, not the backdrop. I make sure the shots show the painting in full and with good geometry, because these photos later work in the exhibition’s communications.
Partner visibility matters. Backdrop walls, the photo wall and the sponsors’ display have to be in the material before anyone asks about them.
Vernissage guests are often recognisable people. I photograph so that every shot with a face is a shot that person could like themselves.
Outcome
The organiser collected the gallery and downloaded the full set of photos for their own communications. The exhibition was open until mid-August 2026.
