Street Photography in Warsaw, Poland

Following on from my experiences in Budapest, I travelled to the Polish capital, Warsaw, for a week of street photography in late November 2024. In hindsight, this was not the best time to visit. Being fairly far north, Warsaw in late autumn was cold, rainy and dark by around 3.30 — 4pm; in other words, far from ideal for colour street photography. Nevertheless, that simply upped the challenge, and in all other respects Warsaw was fantastic.

Senatorska Street, Nov 2024.

Warsaw basics

The city is large, home to just under two million people spread across numerous districts and divided by the wide Vistula river running through the middle. Warsaw is therefore split into left and right banks, with an excellent public transport system — including picturesque yellow trams — connecting all areas.

The left bank, from a business and travel perspective, is much busier, as it hosts the city centre. This includes the UNESCO-listed Old Town and the ultra-modern financial district, studded with skyscrapers that wouldn’t look out of place in New York or London.

In addition, Warsaw has a compelling history and a burgeoning culinary scene. I didn’t know much about the city — or Poland more generally — prior to visiting, but I learnt an enormous amount simply by wandering around, as well as through reading, including Adam Zamoyski’s Poland: A History. I also visited several of Warsaw’s excellent museums, particularly those with a historical focus.

Financial district, Dec 2024.

Street photography highlights

From a street photography perspective, the main thing to note from Warsaw’s recent history is that following the now-celebrated Warsaw Rising during the Second World War, the city was almost totally levelled by the Nazis, with around 85% of buildings on the left bank destroyed. As a result, much of the architecture dates from the ensuing communist period under the Polish People’s Republic (PPR). This architecture is typically large-scale and imposing, and in places monotonous and uninspiring to photograph.

However, some of these socialist monoliths — and the broad boulevards they line — are impressive and historically evocative. The modern financial district, meanwhile, offers a striking contrast. In the adverse weather conditions I experienced, I found both the older and newer architecture to be more photogenic once lit up in the evening. In retrospect, the conditions were likely much better suited to black-and-white photography.

Based on my wanderings, I predictably found the most fruitful area for street photography to be the city centre — by which I mean the large area on the left bank between the architectural behemoth of the Palace of Culture and Science and Nowy Świat (New World) Street, which leads north towards the Old Town. Although the Old Town is itself a reconstruction of the original quarter destroyed during the war, it nevertheless forms the tourist heart of Warsaw. This is where I encountered the greatest concentration of human activity and where the architecture felt most characterful. In places, the buildings seemed to echo Poland’s national awakening in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following the country’s devastating partitioning three times by neighbouring empires in the eighteenth century.

Palace of Culture and Science, Dec 2024.

While in and around the city centre, my eyes were often drawn to the Palace of Culture and Science, an iconic and almost omnipresent structure in central Warsaw. Reportedly gifted by Stalin to the city, it now provokes deeply contradictory reactions: on the one hand, a monumental building worthy of preservation for its historical value; on the other, a stark reminder of a painful period under the PPR. Locally derided as “Stalin’s syringe” or the “Russian wedding cake”, it has long been debated whether it should be demolished. From a photographic perspective, however, it makes for a unique and often dramatic backdrop, while the surrounding square was always alive with activity.

Another area I particularly enjoyed wandering around — especially once the lights came on in the evening — was the financial district immediately west of the Palace of Culture and Science. I had one sunny evening in Warsaw and enjoyed how the light reflected off the glassy buildings, creating some striking photographic opportunities.

Elsewhere, I walked at length through laid-back but somewhat featureless residential districts away from the centre, such as Mokotów, Muranów and even Praga over on the right bank. As I did so, I occasionally regretted not having visited in late spring, summer or early autumn, when I imagined other parts of the city would come to life — particularly along the Vistula riverside, whose banks were completely empty in the cold of late November.

Cafe on Jana Pawła II Street, Dec 2024.

Final impressions

Even despite the poor weather and lack of light, I enjoyed Warsaw and its agreeably easy-going feel for a major European capital. At the same time, it had an intriguing, slightly austere undertone shaped by its communist past. In between photographing, there was plenty else to do, including many cosy cafés and enticing restaurants to rest tired feet in.

On that note, I’ll end by highlighting another of my favourite discoveries in the Polish capital: the phenomenon of the milk bar. Originally named for their dairy-based menus, milk bars were a staple of the PPR, offering workers low-cost, state-subsidised but nourishing meals. The idea was so successful that the tradition survives today, long after the fall of communism in 1989 — with even tourists like myself ending up in one after a few hours of street photography in Warsaw.

This post was first written in December 2024 and updated in December 2025.