We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

I’m 25 years old photographer based in Warsaw, Poland. In 1944 the city was burned to ashes, but now it lives its vibrant live like no other, and is in a golden age of development. Since 2009 I capture the changes taking place here from the heights.

More info: polandonair.com

It all started with Warsaw 24H timelapse

At first I was shooting photos from the roofs of skyscrapers. In 2014 I published my debut movie, Warsaw 24H timelapse, which took me over a year to complete. It was shot from the highest skyscrapers in Warsaw.

Thanks to crowdfunding we self-published an aerial book!

Thanks to Warsaw 24H timelapse I met Aleksandra Łogusz, and together we performed WARSAW ON AIR project. Thanks to crowdfunding we managed to fly in a special 2-engined helicopter with no doors above Warsaw city centre, and capture it from undiscovered perspective. Later we decided to publish a photobook, and because no publishing house wanted to do it, we published it ourselves.

We photographed Warsaw as no one did before.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

My legs leaning outside doorless helicopter 3,5km over ground level over Warsaw.

WARSAW ON AIR became bestseller!

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

We received photos of our book from all around the world! It happened, that in June 2017, during their visit in Warsaw, Prince William & Kate received our book as official gift from Poland! We saw it with our own eyes. We made the whole project ourselves, with no help from institutions or offices. We were so proud! It all gave us motivation for a new project.

We quickly found a new idea.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Poland doesn’t end on Warsaw, so we decided to fly over other big cities as well. Encouraged by people visiting our exhibitions, we made a list of 12 biggest cities in our country.

We started working on POLAND ON AIR.

Then we spent many months trying to organise all the sessions. Flying over big cities is strictly prohibited, so we had to find pilots and a way to do the shooting. We also asked people to preorder the book, so we gained the funds to fly. And so our sky journey over Poland began. We needed to connect all the elements – the permissions, pilots and planes availability, the weather.

We made over 10.000 km driving around country, often in the middle of the night, to do sunrise sessions. It also happened we drived to the other end of the country for nothing. It was exhausting time.

Kraków / Cracow.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Cracow is the old capital of Poland. The Wawel Castle, along with Market Square and medieval urban layout belongs to UNESCO world heritage list. We needed to take 3 trials, before we were allowed to fly so close to the city centre.

Łódź.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Łódź was created as industrial city. There is no Old Town, but geometrical streets, as measured from the ruler. There is nothing like this anywhere else in Poland.

Łódź by night.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Łódź’s network of streets by night. It’s the 3rd biggest cities in Poland.

Szczecin.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Szczecin was one of the biggest surprises on our way. It’s urban layout was partially designed after Paris,

Lublin.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Lublin is a modest, but very charming city in the eastern part of Poland. It’s very green all around!

Rzeszów.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Rzeszów is another city in the eastern part of Poland. It was our first time there, but we certainly want to visit it again.

Backstage.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Maciej flying in a plane and trying to capture some amazing views. We spent over 40 hours altogether in the air.

Bielsko-Biała is a fish!

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Bielsko-Biała is Aleksandra’s home town. Only when flying over it’s centre we discovered it looks like… fish, from above. Just try to see it yourself! We called the photo “RyBBa” – ryba is Polish word for fish.

Poznań.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Old Town in Poznań has the medieval layout of streets. You can clearly see them from above at night.

Katowice.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

One of the brightest spots on the night map of Poland – Katowice, with iconic Spodek (saucer) hall. The city changes very fast.

Białystok.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Białystok – a green city in the north-eastern part of Poland. Branicki Palace in the picture is called the Versaille of Podlasie (voivodeship name) by locals.

Toruń.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Toruń is a place of birth of Mikołaj Kopernik – the medieval astronomer, creator of heliocentric universe theory.

Bydgoszcz.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Bydgoszcz is a big city surrounded by forests. In the evening you can clearly see the city’s borders. That’s how it looks like from 1,500 meters above ground level.

Wrocław.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Wrocław – the city of islands and bridges. From above you can see all of them! It’s one of the most popular and cozy places in Poland to visit. There are many things to do here.

Warsaw.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Close-up at Warsaw Old Town in the morning. It belongs to UNESCO World Heritage List.

Warsaw contrasts.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

The Old Town and the New Town. Modern skyscrapers create stunning conrast with the historic part of the city.

Gdańsk.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Gdańsk – the City of Freedom. It was our last aerial session, and the hardest to organise. I only got one chance to fly over the city centre and shoot such photos.

And so we did it!

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

After 15 months of work our book was ready. We spent 40 hours in the air altogether. We had many doubts on our way, but we kept believing our project is important.

Through our work we wanted to show that our country is modern and beautiful place. We wanted to encourage tourists to come, but also to surprise people living in these cities.

It is also our way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of regaining independence by Poland. We hope our photographs will become unique historical testimony of our times.

We wanted to create something we can all be proud of, and to become our brand abroad.

Thanks to POLAND ON AIR we showed, that SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT!

We opened an exhibition at 35th floor of skyscraper.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

Currently, until 18.12.2018, you can visit our exhibition at 35th floor of skyscraper Warsaw Trade Tower in Warsaw. Also, feel free to visit our website http://polandonair.com, and subscribe to http://youtube.com/polandonair!

The partners of the project are: Colliers, Direct Communication, CM-Systems.

We would never finish the project without the help from 109 people who helped us in crowdfunding.

We hope our exhibition will travel around the country and around the world, so everyone can see Poland’s beauty.

We Spent 15 Months Flying Over Poland To Capture The Beauty Of Its Biggest Cities And Celebrate 100th Anniversary Of Regaining Independence.

It all started with Warsaw 24H timelapse

Thanks to crowdfunding we self-published an aerial book!

We photographed Warsaw as no one did before.

WARSAW ON AIR became bestseller!

We quickly found a new idea.

We started working on POLAND ON AIR.

Kraków / Cracow.

Łódź.

Łódź by night.

Szczecin.

Lublin.

Rzeszów.

Backstage.

Bielsko-Biała is a fish!

Poznań.

Katowice.

Białystok.

Toruń.

Bydgoszcz.

Wrocław.

Warsaw.

Warsaw contrasts.

Gdańsk.

And so we did it!

We opened an exhibition at 35th floor of skyscraper.

Games

Maciej Margas

Maciej Margas