While exploring Warsaw and doing street photography there, I want to evoke and capture the spirit of this place.
I wrote this text on the 16th of August, 2025. It was a day when, not for the first time in my life, I was exploring Warsaw’s soul, the spirit of the place. Of course, while I was doing it, I was also rucking. I had an additional 37.5 kg on my back and shoulders. It was very hot (over 30 degrees Celsius [86 degrees Fahrenheit]). Thus, I did only 9k steps. Luckily, I managed to take 140 pictures on Warsaw’s streets. How happy I was that I could do all these things. Earlier that day, I was reading books. Also, I was chatting with my beloved Kamilka throughout the whole day. I was simply happy I lived in the present moment. While strolling among mundane streets, I asked myself (not for the first time in my life) why I was doing street photography.
Why was I taking pictures of the same objects for over years?
I believe I have some kind of mission (life’s sense?) to evoke and present the spirit of Warsaw for not only my contemporaries, but also for future generations. I hope to freeze some moments from Warsaw’s life forever. Undoubtedly, my way of doing street photography is contemplative. I walk and ruck in the clouds, discussing with myself about various topics. I think that this kind of dialogue can also be found on the www.adammazek.com website. I often write to an imaginary “My Dear Friend.” Of course, this Friend could be a reader reading this text, or me. We are all spirits in a material world, like the famous Police band sang. Isn’t it that places cannot have spirits? After all, Warsaw, like the mythical Phoenix, arose from the ashes (after WWII), and now I am here (perhaps not coincidentally) to create my own myth about Warsaw and its spirit.
