Exhibitions & Publications
Featured Solo Exhibits
Stara Galeria ZPAF, Warsaw, Poland
February 27—March 8, 2019
Plac Zamkowy 8, Warsaw, Poland
Curated by: Iga Niewiadomska
Galeria Wozownia, Torun, Poland
January 11—February 11, 2019
Rabiańska 20, Toruń
Curated by: Natalia Cieslak
Alicja Stanska Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
December 7, 2018–January 7 2019,
Aleje Jerozolimskie 47, Wasaw
Curated by: Bartosz Karol Mołczan
Panstwowa Galeria Sztuki, Sopot, Poland
September 23rd–October 23rd, 2016
Plac Zdrojowy 2, Sopot, Poland
Curated by: Bartosz Karol Mołczan
Group Shows
Salomon Arts Gallery, New York City
November 15–20, 2018
83 Leonard St, New York
Sohn Fine Art, Lenox MA
December 1, 2017–January 29, 2018
69 Church St, Lenox, Massachusetts
Somerset House, London
April 22nd—May 8th, 2016
Strand, London WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
U Space, Beijing
June 7— June 26, 2016
Guangqu Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin
July 5—September 30, 2016
Wilhelmstraße 140, 10963 Berlin, Germany
Media Appearances
Print / On-line
“Here’s what it’s like to watch New York’s Fourth of July fireworks show from 7,000 feet in a private plane” – Business Insider
“Majestic Aerials of the Winter Wonderland” – Wired Magazine
“Aerial Photographer Prefers Airplanes over Drones” – The Weather Channel
“Make it unique – The extraordinary aerial photos of Filip Wolak” – World Photography Organisation
“…jest niezwykłe” – Gazeta Wyborcza Weekend
“Najlepszy na świecie latający fotograf“, Interview – Gazeta Wyborcza Trójmiasto
“Wyjątkowa wystawa w Sopocie” – Onet
Interview – Fakt 24
Interview – Gazeta Wyborcza (national)
“Most Influential” – Lens Magazine
“Cool New York Photographer” – Time Out New York
TV
TVN24 News – Interview
Pytanie na Śniadanie – Interview, TVP2
Świat się Kręci – Talk Show Appearance, TVP
Radio
“Oscarowa fotografia w PGS“, Interview – Polskie Radio, Program 3
“World’s best architecture photographer“, Interview – Polskie Radio / Radio Poland
“…Najlepszy na Świecie Latający Fotograf“, Inteview – Radio Gdańsk
Interview – Polskie Radio, Program 1
Flamp Across America!
Across America!
Turning the lack of work and cheapest avgas in the history of mankind into an opportunity to document this unique chapter of America’s history. A pair of adventurous aviators takes to the skies, to realize a long-term dream. Camping under the wing whenever possible (flamping = flying + camping), and figuring out the challenges as they come.
Sarah Tamar is a fanatic aviatrix and floatplane queen. Currently working as a pilot at Tailwind Air flying Cessna Caravans on floats around the northeast. (That’s as bad-ass as flying a military jet, at least I think so). Best partner to share such adventure with, not only a second pair of flying hands but a True Friend who’s always eager to take part in any flying adventure imaginable.
Filip Wolak is a NYC based award winning photographer, pilot and flight instructor. You can find more info on the About section of this page.
About Us
Sarah Tamar
Sarah is a commercial pilot with Tailwind Air, flying amphibian Caravans in the Northeast. Obsessed with floatplanes since her early age, she is now living her dream, and she’s not stopping there! Sarah is also an excellent writer, as you will shortly discover.
Filip Wolak
Filip is a NYC-based professional photographer, pilot and flight instructor. His aerial photography work won some prestigious awards in the past, and it has been exhibited in the US, and his native country of Poland.
Rusty
Rusty is a 1973 Cessna 172, model M. Also known as November-12236, she is proudly wearing her original 47-year old paint, and beating her just-overhauled 160HP Lycoming heart. As this trip has just proven, she fully deserves the new name: “Trusty!”
Our Experiences: Day by Day
Nothing found.
Fall in Love, from Above
As the Earth Wakes Up...
Let’s follow the swans as they take their early flight over the sleepy, steamy grounds.
Those photographs have been taken over the course of a few days, on the New York State / Connecticut border, near Croton Falls Reservoir. The low temperature / dew point spread has created a beautiful ground fog that lasted over the entire early morning. The sky above was perfectly clear, and the landscape has been slowly revealing itself as the sun burned through the early morning fog.
Sometimes, it pays to wake up early.
Food and Drink
Featured Images
A mix of favorites: from studios, locations, shot mostly for editorial but also for advertising.
Time Out New York – Assignment Showcase
A brief compilation of my favorite assignments from my Time Out years (2013—2018). All photographs have been taken ‘guerilla style’ – in a working environment, often at their busiest time – using portable lighting set-up and always hand-held. Minimal intrusion to the ongoing service was important, with express delivery, often with same-day turnaround around tight print deadlines.
Challenging and very, very enjoyable. I could not imagine a better way of immersing myself in the city’s bar and restaurant scene – from small mom-an-pop shops in Queens through most fashionable Manhattan establishments.
Il Tesoro (in memoriam)
317 E 111th St, New York, NY 10029
Chef A.J. Black recently opened the first NYC location of his restaurant Il Tesoro the Yorkville space which previously housed Primavera Ristorante. The restaurant serves the same style of Italian food and “new classic” fare found at the other locations in Martha’s Vineyard and Florida’s Sanibel Island.
World & Travel
World & Travel
This section of the page is still under construction. Stories of past travel will appear here. Stay tuned!
Feature story: The living color of a Bhutanese festival
Samcholing, Trongsa, Bhutan. February 6, 2017
Nightlife
Of the City that Never Sleeps...
As a long-term Time Out New York contributor, I had a fantastic opportunity to crash some of the most iconic and famous NYC parties. That collaboration allowed me to discover what’s best around town after the sunset, while giving the organizers an excellent opportunity to promote using Time Out well established brand.
My efforts were most active between the years 2007 and 2015. Recently, the scene has changed, and so did I. Nevertheless, you can still find me shooting at select (read: best) parties around town.
I hope to see you there!
Interiors and Architecture
Interiors and Architecture
Showing select works for various clients. Product and Catalog photography has also been included in this category.
Swipe left or use < > arrows to view more images from the assignment.
Seaglass Carousel
Client: The Battery Conservancy
Ongoing: Museum Photography
Client: Various
Inner Strength
Client: Carnegie Fabrics
Collection 2019
Client: Foscarini Soho
Reverse Room / Light Bulb Series
Client: Foscarini Soho
Kitchens
Client: Julien
Monumentals / Illusion
Client: Foscarini Soho
Trade Show Booth
Client: Istanbul Design Collective / DADA Goldberg
Erik Bruce
Client: Carnegie Fabrics
Rituals XL
Client: Foscarini Soho
Brookstone Product Showcase
Client: Brookstone / Five to Sixty
Arts & Museums
The Best of What NYC Arts Has to Offer...
The specialization photographing New York’s major cultural institutions has created a extensive portfolio across multiple areas. The images are constantly promoting major NYC museums, their exhibitions and public programs. Chances are, if you visited their web-site or saw their catalog, you saw my work.
My knowledge of photographic reproduction is also applied in strictly technical tasks like interior photography, documentation or condition reporting. Not pictured here.
Below is a quick selection of some of my favorite ‘Museum Experiences’ assignments shot over prior years.
Aerial Photography
Four Seasons...
As as tribute to this iconic New York City landmark, comes this colorful quadriptych. Each of those photograph have been taken at the height of each season, and display the variety of colors and changes that the park goes throughout the year.
Precision and care has been taken to position the airplane above the southern part of the park at an exact timing, so that the shadow of the buildings lines up perfectly with the surrounding avenues.
Available as separate seasons, or complete set, framed separately, those large format prints are highly detailed and beautifully printed on a fine art archival paper.
Click on above gallery to discover each season
Exhibited Works
Ponad Zima – Wozownia, Torun
Ponad Zima – ZPAF Warszawa
Higher than You...
Obsessed with trying to capture the uncanny, this shooting style is quire challenging, and safe when performed correctly. Being safely separated by a few thousand feet, the difficulty is to synchronize my flight direction with the aircraft flying below. It takes a lot of feel and mental calculation, as there are several seconds in which the airliner is not visible under my craft. The feel of airspeed, prevailing winds and knowledge of the landscape below is key to interesting capture.
Presented in an unique ‘look down’ setting, those images – in sizes 40x60in are laid down on a pedestal so that the viewer can also put himself in the unusual attitude and therefore participate with the experience at height.
Alternatively, each of the images is available for purchase in a framed format for traditional exposition.
AA1165: JFK to Miami (American Airlines B777 / The Rockaways, NY)
AI191: Mumbai to Newark (Air India B787 / Onion Fields, NY)
UA327: Houston to La Guardia (United A319 / Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY)
DL5611: Charlotte to La Guardia (Delta E175, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY)
LH 7603: Frankfurt to New York (Lufthansa B747 / Goshen, NY)
UA9842: Vienna to Newark (United B757 / Goshen, NY)
N12236: Rusty over Beach (C172 / Coney Island, NY)
Ponad Zima – Wozownia, Torun
Ponad Zima – Wozownia, Torun
Good Morning New York...
New York City. My long-term inspiration. The theme of countless movies, songs, and backgrounds for incredible stories, both nonfictional and fictional. Take a flight with me over this wonderful place I’ve called home for over 20 years.
It’s the middle of August and Manhattan works at half pace. The unbearable heat of the concrete has not yet crept in and the air is still fresh. The day is anew.
The Staten Island Ferry arrives at its terminal in Battery Park. The City That Never Sleeps awakes, as workers slowly start filling the streets, getting on with their daily routine.
Looking north on the way uptown, the Freedom Tower stand tall and proud. The symbol of The Changed America it fails to deliver on the power that Twin Towers symbolized. As the world changes, so does this nation. Calling it “Freedom” was a sad cry, almost a trick for the past 9/11 times, in which we experience it less and less as the time passes.
Continuing north on the Hudson we pass by Midtown Manhattan. A residential neighborhood, conveniently located close to all of Midtown’s office buildings seems tranquil in its early morning haze. The feeling of stopped time is, however, only imaginary. Within an hour the streets will fill with pedestrians and automobile traffic, the waterside will host joggers and bikers partaking in their morning routine. A day, just like any other. Hard to miss is the “Big Tetrahedron” building to the left. Designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, it presents a unique structure on the island’s skyline.
Another “new” New York Icon, the IAC headquarters designed by Frank Gehry, stands in the shadow of the Empire State Building. Mr. Gehry must have taken this to heart, as he designed the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere (at the time), 8 Spruce Street. This achievement was unfortunately quite short-lived as it was overtaken by one of the boring pencil-like structures in Midtown Manhattan.
In order to continue this story, we need to fast-forward a few years to this wintry, cold New York morning. 432 Park Avenue – that unattractive tall, pencil-like building that rises above the skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan. Soon to be home to many, yet so few, as the prices started at $9 million and went all the way up to $95,000,000. Despite this, in 2018 this building was NYC’s best selling real estate ever! To add spice to the story, it’s top glory is bound to be short-lived, as coming to the market soon is Central Park Tower which will also top out at almost 200 feet higher when finished in 2020. Will 432’s apartments soon become ‘affordable’? I seriously doubt so.
But, there’s hope! Turns out that you do not have to be a trillionaire in order to enjoy the nice views. All you need is Rusty. This Million Dollar View was presented to me as I was cleared to cross over Manhattan on my way to the East River. The sweet glory of big bucks tickled me as I made this passage. To wake up to such a vista? Beyond fabulous. To experience it yourself anytime you wish from a small plane? Not too shabby, right?
Altitude is like a drug – it is addictive, it gets you high, and way too much of it will…well, never mind. Most importantly, altitude is good, as it’s the slow and low that is usually problematic for all things flying. Here, I climbed close to 10,000 feet in order to have a look at the island in all its beauty. Fresh snow covers the city, and none of the annoyances and complaints that the city folk constantly bring up during wintertime is apparent from this height. It is damn cold – about 0°F (-20°C) – and with the open windows and wind blowing past, the flight is challenging. Taken by the beauty of the scene, I quickly ignore the discomfort, safely bundled in my warmest jacket, scarf, and good gloves.
Have you seen this already? If you have been browsing my site, chances are that you did. This photo cost me frostbites on my fingers but it also won me a prestigious award a few years back. A result of meticulous planning and near-perfect execution, plus a bit of luck. I was (which is almost always the case) both the pilot and the photographer at the time. Key here is the line of shadows, and because the time was early March, their length also offers perfect proportion. This photograph has grown into a 4-season series, which I am inviting you to explore here.
Let’s stay in the park but fast forward to this beautiful spring day. It’s the end of April, the trees are blooming in its full glory and locals and tourists alike stream to the park to enjoy Sunday afternoon in Manhattan’s largest park – New York’s landmark icon.
Two years later, it’s 2020 – the year that invented the term ‘social distancing’. Large circles in Brooklyn’s Domino Park guide the sunbathers in maintaining safe spacing due to the COVID-19 pandemic that the city is battling.
Forget COVID for a moment, and let’s go back to the good ol’ days and follow the crowds as they flock south during the warm days of August. It’s the last day of ‘official’ summer and New Yorkers escape the urban frying pan to visit the city beaches. Those are the last days with full blown sun soon to be dearly missed, as September is just around the corner. Coney Island has always been THE destination, still in the shine of its 50s glory, it is still a place to be during summer. Yes, Rockaways is cool, Hamptons may be cooler, but what sets Coney apart from their hipper siblings is the culture. And there’s plenty of it; I look back with joy to the times of photographing their burlesque shows, freak festivals, strongman competitions, concerts and shows during my vivid nightlife Time Out NY collaboration period.
What makes Coney unique, in addition to its rich culture, is its amazing over 100-year old Luna Park. The Cyclone, Parachute Jump, Nathan’s Hot Dogs – those have all become landmark names made famous the entire world over. Usually busy during hot summer days, pictured here they lie dormant, waiting patiently for the influx of visitors and entertainers alike.
Not that far away to the west, Staten Island’s Ferry Terminal is the host to this community-made Black Lives Matter mural. As a bold statement to the changing times, and to the city emerging from the COVID-19 crisis with so much uncertainty ahead.
As protests against inequality and police brutality continued for weeks, they had their culminating moment on June 19, 2020. Spontaneous, yet well organized protests have been popping up everywhere around all of the boroughs, in a peaceful atmosphere, and with joy in hope and expectation of changes to come. An important date in American history, the Day of Liberation is also commonly referred to as “Juneteenth”. And as long as Google spell check still finds this word as an error, we have more work to do.
As the day ends, I find myself over one of my favorite places in New York City. The Met – one of the landmarks of the city’s cultural life – is wrapping up for the day. Oh the sweet hours that I’ve spent in its spacious and rich interiors. The art and culture that I’ve witnessed, the stories that I’ve documented. Writing from the distance of isolation, while all the museums remain closed for an undetermined time, the longing to return feels extra poignant.
Back in my Brooklyn days of early 2000s, I often visited Prospect Park during warm autumn days. As my flight training was at its highest peak, I constantly walked in my head in the clouds, dreaming. One of the joys of these evenings was visually following the airliners on their way to La Guardia and wondering how it was possible that the kites them fly so high never bother the pilots.
So, one day I have decided to catch an Embraer 175 overflying a game of cricket.
In a different part of town, another game is about to begin while we witness another late La Guardia arrival. Normally, it is not permitted to fly over an active sports event, but at that altitude, who cares. (Actually I was well above the restriction 😉
The sun had set in the west, and a beautiful calm evening poured over the city as it celebrated its 15th anniversary of September 11.
It is the time when the city’s magic comes alive.
With July 4th celebrations well underway, smoke from the nearby fireworks explosions filled Downtown Manhattan’s narrow streets. It’s the night where New York looks like a true Gotham City. See more Fireworks from the Air in the special July Feature here
Let’s enjoy the beautiful Tribute in Light once more, from this ‘classic Manhattan’ perspective, before we retire for the day.
Good night, New York. Sleep well. Tomorrow, I will see you again.
As the Earth Wakes Up...
Let’s follow the swans as they take their early flight over the sleepy, steamy grounds.
Those photographs have been taken over the course of a few days, on the New York State / Connecticut border, near Croton Falls Reservoir. The low temperature / dew point spread has created a beautiful ground fog that lasted over the entire early morning. The sky above was perfectly clear, and the landscape has been slowly revealing itself as the sun burned through the early morning fog.
Sometimes, it pays to wake up early.