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Gallery: seeing Baku in black and white

October 27, 2026 / 11 Comments

Baku is like an old forgotten book that you discover in your grandmother’s attic. Once you’ve wiped off the dust and delved into its pages, you stand amazed at its treasures.

Reza, photographer

Baku is a city that blends old and new effortlessly. Its old town has been perhaps too neatly restored, though you can find back streets that still feel genuinely old. Outside its walls are avenues of grand houses built by the city’s first oil barons, and beyond those some of the most striking modern architecture you will find anywhere, including the iconic Flame Towers.

For this week’s theme free Monochrome Madness I’ve converted a handful of the photos I took there to black and white to give just a small flavour of a city that surprised me by how much I liked it.

As always I used my go-to software, Nik Silver Efex, to convert all these shots from colour originals. My feature photo is of the Flame Towers seen from the Caspian Sea waterfront.

Flame Towers and mosque, seen from Highland Park

The Bulvar, the Caspian Sea waterfront park

The Crescent Hotel

Deniz Mall, designed to look like a lotus flower

Staircase at our hotel

Bust of poet Aliagha Vahid (look closely at his ‘hair’!)

Lantern in the Old Town

Balustrade in the Old Town

Lada parked in the Old Town

The House with Angels, one of the oil barons’ mansions

Lamppost near the Old Town walls

Fountain in Sabir Garden

The Philharmonic Fountain

11 Comments

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