A slice of sunlight cuts through the centre of this shadowy photography taken by British architectural photographer Pawel Paniczko, who is the winner of The Architectural Photography Awards 2018.

His shot of the Long Museum West Bund, a gallery in Shanghai completed by Atelier Deshaus in 2014, hones in on the intersection between one of the building's vaulted walls and an old wharf once used for coal transportation. 

Paniczko is also the winner of the Portfolio category of the competition for six images taken of the sinuous Harbin Opera House by MAD. 

“I love to photograph buildings that create emotions and both Long Museum West Bund and Harbin Opera House were these kinds of structures. Spending a time in and around these buildings, watching how people interact with them and how the light changes in the course of a day, was truly inspirational,” says Paniczko.

“That helped me to catch the essence of the buildings presented in my images. Shooting in China on my own was logistically challenging but also a fantastic experience.”

The annual Architectural Photography Awards – where images are submitted across categories including interiors, exteriors and sense of place – are presented at the World Architecture Festival each year. Paniczko was named overall winner at the event's closing dinner and prize ceremony.