1PHOTO(GRAPHER): HÉLÈNE BINET

 

1PHOTO(GRAPHER): HÉLÈNE BINET

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was this photograph taken?

HB: Kolumba Museum – designed by Peter Zumthor – in Cologne, Germany.

HO: When was this photograph taken?

HB: The date could be 2008 or 2006, I forgot. It was just before the opening of the building.

HO: Was this the first time you were in this city and in this space?

HB: I had been there for four or five days. But it was the first time I shot Kolumba. After I did the photographing I came back a year later to do more photos for the museum - as it was finished with the art pieces inside. So I thought it would be interesting to go back to the same room and see if I can play around the subject. As a result I did a few colour photos, but I do think that the first set was the most successful without a doubt.

HO: Are there any technical aspects about this photograph that you would like to mention?

HB: My work is shot on film and I don’t shoot digital. I use a 4x5 camera which is the classical camera that architectural photographers use.

HO: What's the story behind this photograph?

HB: I was shooting, and it was actually the end of the shoot, and there was a lot of construction work going on around – it looks very peaceful but then it was noisy, and there were big machines – and there were two moments that happened. One was that the electricity was cut out. Finally my brain worked better because there was not so much noise but also there was no artificial light, and suddenly, there was this very small effect of the light “touching” the concrete ceiling which made the light coming in through the brick wall much more relevant. So I had to beg the workers not to repair the problem with the power too quickly so I could take this photograph. So, in most shoots I try to plan what I am doing, but this was absolutely not planned, and I was glad it happened because it was a significant moment in capturing that building.

HO: Why did you select this photograph?

HB: For me it embodies a lot of things that are important. That moment of light captures the role of how light creates a “body of life” in the building, and it makes me understand how not only do we need light to see materials and space, but we also need the space to see the light. If we have light without any object or material we would not be able to see the light. This means that the relationship between light and object is incredibly important and somehow poetic. In my photograph you can feel a body of light that is playing around the room. It is created from different openings in the wall, reflecting and refracting into different beams of light.

Hélène Binet is a Swiss-French architectural photographer based in London.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JOÃO CARMO SIMÕES

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JOÃO CARMO SIMÕES

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was this photograph taken?

JCS: In a small room in the new National Coach Museum, in Lisbon.

HO: When was it taken?

JCS: In 2013.

HO: What were the conditions there?

JCS: The room was lit only by an overhead sunlight coming through the huge white skylights. The museum had no one there besides me and someone from the security staff who escorted my visit. Silence.

HO: Are there any technical aspects about the shooting that you want to point out?

JCS: I photographed this image using a wide-angle lens camera on a tripod.

HO: How did you get inside the building?

JCS: Through the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. It was a planned visit so that I photograph the building.

HO: Had you been there before?

JCS: I had been there at least twice. One while it was being built and another time when it building was finished.

HO: Why did you choose this image? Was there anything you wanted to tell through it?

JCS: I look for images that are not imposed by being spectacular. Rather, I look for images which, through silence, try to speak about the particularity of an architecture. So, I found this image which seemed to be a bit enigmatic and thus questioned the architecture. I try not to demand for abstraction, but the intention of getting closer to architecture and to question it, to make it a bit more intelligible and conscious.

And so, we are in a small room of a large building, focusing on one direction, we see a diagonal wide span, a large diagonal metal element. At first, we could ask ourselves about the existence of these diagonal elements and then we could quickly take formalistic understandings out of these diagonals. However, if we digest some of what we see, having in mind the relations regarding the wholeness of the project, maybe we can be seduced by this architecture, by this building.

The design of the diagonal opening, enlighted on the left side of the image, corresponds to the opening of a gap in a wall that is a huge metal truss. Still on the left, closer, we can see the part of a huge cross which makes the horizontal locking of huge "wall-beams" that suspend the entire building.

So, looking at the architecture with the desire of understanding it, we find out that, even in a small room, in what seem to be small visible details, we can glimpse part of the whole which sets up the project, and that manifests itself. We understand the relationship of the parts with the whole in the understanding of the architecture of the building. Therefore, I am not only looking for a visual, or a theoretical or a formal issue, but a constructive one, and so an architectural one as well.

 

João Carmo Simões is a Portuguese  architecture photographer.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): PEDRO PEGENAUTE

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): PEDRO PEGENAUTE

POR HUGO OLIVEIRA


HO: Onde foi a fotografia tirada?

PP: Em Cornellá (Barcelona, Espanha). O edifício é o novo campo do RCD Español.

HO: Quando foi a fotografia tirada?


PP: Domingo, 2 de Agosto de 2009. Às 20:50h e 32 segundos.

HO: Quais eram as condições do espaço?


PP: A temperatura, como se pode ver pelas roupas das pessoas fotografadas, era quente, ainda que estivesse a anoitecer, estávamos no Verão. A luz é a dos focos que iluminam o terreno de jogo e o som é o de qualquer estádio de futebol, pessoas que naquele momento ainda estavam tranquilas. Nesse dia, estava a fazer fotografias do novo campo de futebol do RCD Español, ao encargo dos arquitectos (Reid FenwickAsociados e Gasulla Arquitectura) e com o motivo da inauguração do espaço. Posteriormente realizei outra sessão com o estádio vazio. A fotografia está tirada desde uma passarela suspensa na cobertura, para a manutenção do edifício e está em cima das bancadas onde se sentam as pessoas. Uma posição privilegiada.

HO: Existem aspectos técnicos acerca da captura desta fotografia que gostaria de apontar?


PP: Poucos aspectos técnicos, na verdade. Câmara na mão, ISO alto mas não muito (800), diafragma 5.6, ao contrário do que deve ser para se conseguir um “grão” fino e uma boa definição, mas do local onde estava a ser tirada a fotografia, não se podia colocar um tripé e interessava-me ter uma velocidade de obturação suficiente para que as pessoas não fossem registadas na imagem em  movimento. Estava obrigado a que assim fosse.

HO: O que acha mais interessante nesta imagem?


PP: Agrada-me a composição, o ponto de vista. Sobretudo o facto de que nesta fotografia as pessoas são as protagonistas, as que dão sentido à arquitectura e à fotografia.

HO: Existe algum acontecimento peculiar acerca da captura desta imagem que queira partilhar?


PP: Curiosamente, durante esse fim-de-semana (na verdade, no dia anterior), conheci a mulher com quem me casei, a mãe do meu filho.

HO: Existe algo que estava a tentar comunicar através desta fotografia?


PP: No geral, espero que quando as pessoas vejam as minhas fotografias, sintam algo, se sintam emocionadas, com sugestões, ou seja, que desfrutem ao apreciá-las.

Pedro Pegenaute é fotógrafo de arquitectura e vive em Espanha.

A imagem e entrevista seleccionadas fazem parte do projecto editorial  “1 Photo(grapher)”.

 

1 PHOTOGRA(PHER): NICK GUTTRIDGE

 

1 PHOTOGRA(PHER): NICK GUTTRIDGE

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was the photograph taken?

NG: At the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, in London.

HO: When was it taken?

NG: In January, 2014.

HO: What were the conditions on site?

NG: It was warm. The dancers have to have warm conditions to avoid injury. No smells, but good music. I can't remember what it was exactly.

HO: Are there any technical aspects about the shooting that you want to point out?

NG: This is an example of a constructed architectural shot with a performer. I drew the shot beforehand with the architect, therefore I dreamt it before I took it. Then I positioned tripod (low) and using a view camera with both rise and sideways movements created my composition.

From then on I used approximately four lights, all profoto. Magnum reflector as the key light on a megaboom approximately 30 feet high up. XL umbrella as the fill + several D1 heads with 20mm built in reflectors to catch the ceiling and the background wall. Each light was metered individually beforehand.

HO: How did you get this opportunity?

NG: It was a commission by Allies and Morrison.

HO: Had you been there before this photograph was taken?

NG: Yes. I was half way through when I took this. The commission lasted two weeks.

HO: Why did you select this image and what do you find most interesting about it?

NG: Well, it is so nice to mix my skills as an architectural photographer, with lighting and a performer.

HO:  Is there a particular story about this photograph that you would like to share?

NG: One of the dancers had had a hip replacement, so that was nice to help celebrate her recovery.

HO: Was there anything that you discovered through it?

NG: It was completely set up, the only thing I couldn't predict was the moves the dancer would make and the light outside.

 

Nick Guttridge is a London based photographer working for the arts and architecture community.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): MONTSE ZAMORANO GAÑÁN

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): MONTSE ZAMORANO GAÑÁN

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was the photo taken?

MZG: The photo was taken at the Campus of the University of Alcalá, in Alcalá de Henares, nearby Madrid, in Spain.

HO: When was the photo taken?

MZG: The photo was taken on May 24th 2012, around 21h30… but don’t remember the second!

HO: What were the conditions at the site?

MZG: It was a beautiful spring day, in that moment with a comfortable temperature (around 25º C), soft light, I was in a calm and quiet area, with a smell of fresh green grass and trees of the surrounding vegetation.

HO: Are there any technical aspects about the photograph that you would like to point out?

MZG: I used a wide tilt and shift lenses.

HO: How did you get into the site?

MZG: I got into the site by commission of the architect (Héctor Fernández Elorza).

HO: Had you been on that site before?

MZG: It was my third day at the site. I had been taking pictures, footage and time lapses for a video I did too, so I knew very well the way the light changed the building throughout the day.

HO: Why did you select this image and what do you find most interesting about it?

MZG: I really like the way the idea of the building is expressed and the light in the picture, softening the sharp shape and roughness of the concrete. 

HO: Is there a peculiar event about this photograph that you would like to share?

MZG: I took a similar version in the morning: I liked the framing, but I was not so proud of the light. I realized it had to be shot in the afternoon.

HO: Is there anything that you were trying to communicate through this photograph?

MZG: I was trying to make understandable the structural idea of the building: a cantilevered structure, with a big “brise-soleil” shadowing the main interior space. People scale the shot, and the upper foliage of the trees makes the viewer realize that the building is surrounded by vegetation.

 

Montse Zamorano Gañán is a Spanish photographer based in New York City.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)"

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JOSEF SCHULZ

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JOSEF SCHULZ

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was the photograph taken? 

JS: It's an abandoned petrol station in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

HO: When was the photo taken?

JS: It was taken at the end of April 2011. I don't have an exact time stamp.

HO:  What were the conditions at the site?

JS: It was a sunny day, this station is placed between two regional roads, in the middle of a commercial area, accompanied by sound and smell of heavy trucks.

HO: Are there technical aspects about the photograph that you want to point out?

JS: It was made on a 4x5 negative material.

HO: How did you get into the site.

JS: This was the first photo of my latest series "poststructure", which has the focus on commercial sites in the USA. It's my own artistic project, costs are covered by myself.

HO: Had you been in that site before? 

JS: No, I had not been there before. I made a rough plan, which states and towns I would like to visit, but no site was discovered before. It was somehow a road trip by chance with a conceptual idea behind it.

HO: Why did you select this image and what do you find most interesting about it? 

JS: It was the first image of approximately 500, which I made in the following seven weeks. 

HO: Is there an interesting event about this photograph that you would like to share?

JS: It was an important moment, I did this first image, and I was immediately convinced, that my visual idea would be possible and it gave me a lot of energy to go on with this project.

HO: Is there anything that you were trying to communicate through it?

JS: With the words of Gregor Jansen: "The photographs by Josef Schulz are also influenced by loss and resignation. Here something has failed whose origin remains hidden and whose context the images deliberately omit. America as the“land of unlimited possibilities”is the past, and unlimited impossibilities are now as present as the over-indebtedness of the Americans. Each beginning contains an ending and every failure contains an oddly shaped ruin." is everything said.

 

Josef Schulz  is a Düsseldorf based photographer.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): PAOLO ROSSELLI

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): PAOLO ROSSELLI

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was this photograph shot?

PR: It was shot in the room of the hotel where I was staying in Katowice, in Poland.

HO: When was it shot?

PR: It was shot in January, 2014. It's my most recent work.

HO: What type of atmosphere of Katowice were you trying to reflect through this photograph?

PR: Firstly, I think that there is a confusion between the "inside" and the "outside". Then there is a confusion between two subjects: landscape and camera. And then there is a view in the second camera which is blurred. So I really like to put these things together.

HO: What made you select this photograph?

PR: First I must say that it is not a real collage. In a way, as a photographer I see the world as a collage, it is artificial, it is built. It is sort of “fake” thing. But at the same time very real. This set is not made with Photoshop, it's made by me. I like to put things together that have no relation. Normally you see the landscape as a landscape. My view of the world is already a collage, it's a sort of a “set”. I think about the “set”, I prepare it, and then I go around the city, and I try and propose to see the world in this way.

So, this series – with the camera “inside the picture” - is something that I conceived around one year ago. I started to put the camera as a subject inside the photo that looks at the landscape. So, the world for me is not “reality”, it is a “set”. In my opinion, there is a difference in the perceiving of the world before and after digital photography arrived - let's say, ten years ago. In my view this change came with other changes in the view of the city. The growth of cities “exploded” in the last 30 years. If you go to China you perfectly understand that! It's a chaos. But nevertheless a very interesting chaos. And in my view, all of these changes - urban, technical, etc. - came at the same time. It influenced the perceiving of the world by the photographer. And as a photographer, I react to these changes through my work.

HO: What do you like the most about this photo and is there anything valuable to take out of this experience?

PR: What I like in this picture that I took - or any other that I take inside of a room or of a car - is that I can put together two experiences. The experience of the inside and the experience of the outside. If I was in a helicopter I could only see the experience of the outside through a medium (a drone or a helicopter). This is not interesting for me. I cannot compose the image as I do, through a drone.

HO: What is the importance of storytelling and narrative in your work?

PR: I think that ideas, words, or concepts lead me in taking a particular picture. That is very important in my point of view. Otherwise, I think that, while taking pictures of architecture is a very interesting thing, in the end you need to think about what you are doing as a photographer.

 

Paolo Rosselli is an Italian architecture photographer based in Milan.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): ALASTAIR PHILIP WIPER

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): ALASTAIR PHILIP WIPER

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO:  Where and when did you take this photograph?

APW: This photograph was shot in a storage warehouse a CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, on May 15. 2013, at 10:36.

HO: How was the atmosphere there?

APW: Quiet, a bit dusty, mostly overcast as there was a big warehouse door open to the left of the picture and it was a cloudy, rainy day outside.

HO: Any technical aspects about the shooting that you want to point out?

APW: I used a digital camera and a tripod, with a shutter release cable, and the available light.

HO: How did you get in?

APW: I am doing a long term personal project about the facilities at CERN, so I have some contacts there that get me access.

HO: Had you been there before?

APW: I have been to CERN before, but never in that building.

HO: What do you find most interesting about this image?

APW: The large circular object is a full scale plywood replica of part of the ATLAS Experiment, one of the particle detectors on the Large Hadron Collider, which was built to train the engineers how to install different parts of it. I'm not sure if it has been used since the construction of the detector was completed in 2008, we found it at the back of a storage warehouse. There are a lot of things that work for me in this image: the playfulness and contrast of having something so technically advanced replicated in wood; the representation of something that is the most advanced machine that has ever been built by mankind put at the back of a warehouse and forgotten about; the way the circles are aligned.

 

Alaistair Philip Wiper is an English photographer based in the Copenhagen.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): LEONARDO FINOTTI

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): LEONARDO FINOTTI

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where was this photograph shot?

LF: In Icaraí-Grajaú, in the outskirts of the southern area of ão Paulo, in Brazil.

HO: When?

LF: On November 3, 2011, at 10.28am.

HO: Is there any technical aspect of the photograph that you want to mention?

LF: The fact that shooting was done in a helicopter brought some technical issues to light. For example, to avoid a blurred image I had to use a higher speed. The use of till-shift lenses in an helicopter flight is very difficult task to be performed, because these are fully manual lenses that do not allow things like autofocus or the possibility to set the shutter speed. On the other hand, the most important in this picture is the framework. To find an extremely accurate perspective as I do in my nomal work by foot.

HO: How did the opportunity show up?

LF: The work was commissioned by the Municipal Housing Department, which was investing in many sports and leisure facilities on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo.

HO: I had been in that area before?

LF: No, but walked there a few days later.

HO: Why did you choose this image? What's most interesting about it?

LF: The photo is part of an authorial work which I'm developing right now which will be shown at an exhibition in Rio de Janeiro along with a book published in Switzerland. Also, because it has a special meaning in the context of the World Cup (2014 in Brazil).

HO: Was there anything you were trying to communicate through it?

LF: My photography work ends up structuring the reality that I photograph. In a architecture project finding this structure is always easier because it is designed by an architect and has all of those things really well defined, the informal city does not. In this image the football field/slum is "architectuized" by my way of seeing; the structure of the field goes through the slum, but it all happens in the picture, the picture creates a structured reality.

HO: Is there any peculiar story about the photograph that you want to share?

LF: I did a lenticular print this photo as a test, which consists of two overlapping extensions, at the back with paper and at the front with translucent frame, and it created a strange kind of 3D motion, which changes depending on the position of the observer. We put it in the office and everyone hated it. Two days later we had a meeting there with a curator who saw the photo and said, "Don't show this to anyone, we will make an exhibition". That is the exhibition I am working on now. Everybody sees different things in photography!

 

Leonardo Finotti is a Brazilian architectural photographer.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): SEBASTIANO RAIMONDO 

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): SEBASTIANO RAIMONDO 

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where did you shoot these photographs?

SR: These photographs were shot in the territory of Castelvetrano, in Sicily, Italy. In my work it is very common to use images together has diptychs or triptychs. The first one shows the construction of the town hall (designed by architect Santo Giunta, 2005-2008) and the second one is of the temple "E" in the archaeological area of elinunte (460-450 BC).

HO: When were they shot?

SR: The first one in the Spring of 2007, the second one in the Spring of 2011.

HO: Is there any technical aspect about the process that you want to point out?

SR:  These were shot on film, like most of my work, and then scanned and printed by me.

HO: How did you get to the sites?

SR: The first access to sites was through comission. I worked as an architect in the office that designed the Castelvetranho town hall building and I often visited the archaeological area where the temple is. Both architectures have a clear place in the landscape and a relationship with the public space, although both also in very different ways.

HO: Was there something that you wanted to communicate throught these two images?

SR: I think the diptych may suggest to the viewer - an architect, or not - a reflection on the concept of ruin and of time.

The two photographs, which don't show people, showing the same territory, set a fragment on the evolution of both buildings; the power of the sequence is in the illusion that the two building can advance in relation to the finished form of a pre-existing project, something that already exists in represented in a way, or in relation to the ruin of all artifacts which slowly return - with the help of nature and of the cultural meaning attributed - to a form which can be pre-visualized.

Whatever is the fate of any of those buildings, the photographic image is at the intersection of the two timelines, and as a manifestation of the author's experience, it is a bridge with endless possibilities of reading by any viewer.

HO: Was there anything that you discovered through this diptych?

SR: I realized that the photographic work exists beyond the represented object; its existence is concrete, changeable, and it also lives beyond its author.

 

Sebastiano Raimondo is an Italian architect and photographer based in Palermo.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): OLIVO BARBIERI

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): OLIVO BARBIERI

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where and when was this photo taken?

OB: It was shot in Houston, state of Texas (USA), in the Summer of 2012.

HO: What were the conditions there?

OB: It was very hot and sunny and there was no wind.

HO: How did this opportunity come up?

OB: I went to Houston to shot it because it is part of my project “site specific_” about the form the contemporary city.

HO: Are there any particular technical aspects about the photo that you want to point out?

OB: Well, I was shooting from an helicopter, 500 feet above ground.

HO: Why did you select this image?

OB: I selected this image because I found it was interesting to question how and why urban planners or architects and developers decided it was right and necessary to put a kind of Aztec temple on top of a sky scrapper.

 

Olivo Barbieri is an artist and photographer.

The image and interview are part of the editorial project “1 Photo(grapher)”.

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): FRANCISCO NOGUEIRA

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): FRANCISCO NOGUEIRA

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where and when was this photograph shot?

FN: This was shot at the “Boa Entrada” Main Country House, in São Tomé and Príncipe, April 4th, 2013, 12:38.

HO: What were the conditions on site?

FN: The weather was really hot and humid which makes the body be permanently sweating. The smell and sound of the “roça” (country house) is very peculiar. You can hear roosters, goats, kids playing, balls. Because of its configurations and because they are open glades, the very own acoustics of “roças” are special. The smell is also very characteristic, mainly because in the majority of “roças” people and animals cohabit the same spaces. In those places where cocoa is dried there is also a very particular odor.

HO: Are there any technical aspects about the shooting  that you want to point out?

FN: I used a full-frame digital camera and tilt and shift lens.

HO: How did you opportunity happen?

FN: This photograph is part of a work I did for the book “As Roças de São Tomé e Príncipe” (Tinta da China, 2013) in co-authorship with architects Duarte Pape e Rodrigo Rebelo de Andrade. We visited and catalogued 122 “roças” which Duarte and Rodrigo had already identified through a research they were developing at the time. The way we got inside the “roças” was always the same: get in and try and establish a dialogue with the local communities, trying to explain the project and asking for permission to photograph the place. The people of São Tomé are very open and friendly, which meant that in the majority of times there was no problem establishing that connection that allowed us to do our work.

HO: Was this the first time you were there?

FN: It was my first time in São Tomé and Príncipe, but both Duarte and Rodrigo had already been at Boa Entrada “roça” 4 years before and they could see the glass and woodwork of this bow window completely intact.

HO: Why did you select this image?

FN: From all the ones from the “Roças de São Tomé e Príncipe” project I chose this one because I felt that this one encapsulates some of the things that make this reality unique and which should be valued urgently. On one hand it shows the richness of this heritage, on the other hand its very advanced state of degradation. Also because it shows the very social character which is so present and so inseparable from this heritage.

HO: What do you find most interesting about it?

FN: I like this project and particularly this image because of the pleasure it gave to me to do it. It made me realize what type of work do I like the most to do. Somewhere between architecture, travel and reportage.

HO: Is there anything you were trying to communicate through this image?

FN: This entrance area as well as the bow window were added to the original house. It was built in order to receive Prince Luís Filipe at the “roça” while he was visiting São Tomé and Príncipe in 1907.

 

Francisco Nogueira is an architectural photographer based in Lisbon.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): WALTER MAIR

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): WALTER MAIR

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where and when was this photo taken?

WM: This is a shot of the stage of the Schauspielhaus Köln (theater), in Cologne, Germany

HO: When was it shot?

WM: In February 2013.

HO: What were the conditions in the space?

WM: Room temperature, heavy bright-dark contrasts from the fluorescent lamps, sound-check in the background, no smell, many people bustling around.

HO: How did you get into the building?

WM: It was through a commission by the Schauspielhaus Köln, Cologne, initiated by the director, Anna Viebrock.

HO: Had you been there before?

WM: Yes, I attended a series of rehearsals for this play to do the pictures for the programme and also for the press.

HO: Why is this photograph so important for you?

WM: The subject matter of the play and of the set design contemplates very much the work of the German artist Gregor Schneider and his "Haus u r" The set design and the decor is partly a reconstruction and recombination of some of the interiors by Gregor Schneider. There is also a very iconographic photograph by the artist with a sculpture of a dead body lying on the floor. The intention was to re-enact this tableau. "My" picture stands for now at the end of a long row of other images and ideas: Gregor Schneider's initial thought and the actually built or transformed space and scenery, photographed and published by Schneider; seen by Anna Viebrock and again transformed and reproduced as the set for the Schauspielhaus Köln, with an actor playing the dead person. It seemed to me as if Sachiko turned the screw even more and did not only play a dead person but could transform herself to this very initial lifeless sculpture made only of shoes, some cloth, stockings, sponge and dust.

 

Walter Mair is a photographer and architect based in Zurich.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTOGRAPHER: TIM VAN DE VELDE

 
timvan.jpg

1 PHOTOGRAPHER: TIM VAN DE VELDE

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: When and where was this photograph taken?

TV: The photo is one of the Brüder Klaus Field Chapel in Mechernich-Wachendorf, in Germany.

HO: When was it taken?

TV: In  March 15th 2013m at 14h15, but for me that is not that relevant.

HO: What were the conditions there on site?

TV: Although it was already late in the year, the weather conditions were exceptional. There was still snow at that time of the year which does not happen every year, by far. The weather was very capricious that day. At one time you had sun but five minutes later cold windy fog could pass by and snow showers were pinning like needles in your face.

HO: How did you get to the site?

TV: I went to the site on my own hunch. I had been thinking about photographing it for a while just for myself, but when I woke up that day I saw that a big amount of snow had fallen again and weather was open in Brussels. So I decided to get in my car and make the drive to the Chapel. As an architectural photographer you can be drawn to a building and for the Chapel this was certainly the case. The chapel had been photographed before, but I hadn't seen any photos of it in the snow. For me it was a necessity that my photographs were shot with snow. It gives the chapel a more isolated character.

HO: Had you been there before?

TV: No, it was a first time for me. Often I like to photograph sites the first time I get there. I like to take the time then to discover the building and start shooting it during a day while the building little by little reveals itself.

HO: What do you find most interesting about this photo?

TV:  I like the fact that it is a quite straight forward shot of the path under the snow that leads to the chapel surrounded by snow. But it works. Often the simplest of shots work the best. I like the correlation between the environment and the chapel. The open door intrigues somewhat mysteriously but draws you inside. The fence on the left only gives you that option to go to the Chapel. In the back you see the environment of the hills and woods.

HO: Is there any peculiar story about this shooting?

TV: Although the chapel is somewhat isolated outside a village, it is a place of religious prayer and architecturally interested. So people pass by often and enter of course. For this shot I had to get it on the right time, which meant waiting. Here, although the place looks abandoned a person had just entered the chapel for prayer.

HO: Was there something you wanted to communicate through it?

TV: For me architectural photography is often a solitary experience. You work alone and try to grasp the right shots by discovering the building. On this location, where you have to make an effort to get to the chapel with your gear and the totality of weather conditions and the religious character of the chapel made this experience more intense. To me this image has this feeling in it. It was a sort of architectural pilgrimage.

 

Tim van de Velde is an architectural photographer based in Brussels.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JUAN RODRIGUEZ

 
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1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JUAN RODRIGUEZ

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where and when was this photograph shot?

JR: This photo was shot in Chicago, in 2005, through my hotel room window, looking at the John Hancock Tower. It was late afternoon, while I was preparing my exhibition about Patagonia. That exhabition was held in that building.

HO: Can you specify any technical aspects about the photograph?

JR: It was shot with a Leica M6 and the negative was scanned. The final copy was done with japanese rice paper and printed with mineral ink.

HO: Why did you select this image?

JR: It's part of an exhibition called "Beyond Black" about my own way of looking at architecture. It's part of a bigger discourse.

HO: Was there anything you wanted to communicate through it?

JR: Nothing in particular. But maybe just to say that the texts for the "Beyond Black" book are written by Portuguese friends like Pedro Cabrita Reis and Eduardo Souto de Moura.

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): MARGHERITA SPILUTTINI

 
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1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): MARGHERITA SPILUTTINI

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

HO: Where was this photograph shot?

MS: The photo was taken in Weerberg-Innerst, a small village in the Alps, situated in a side valley between Wattens and Schwaz in Tyrol, Austria, 1300m above sea level.

HO: When was it shot?

MS: In October 1996.

HO: What were the conditions?

MS: Weather conditions are apparent to the observer on first sight. They are an essential element of the image. Also quite dominant was the smell of a manure heap on the neighboring property. (It is not shown on the particular image but on another photo of this series.)

HO: Are there any particular technical aspects you want to point out?

MS: No, no specific technical aspects. 4x5'', ektachrome film.

HO: How did you get to the site?
MS: By the client who is the architect of the house, Mrs. Margarethe Heubacher-Sentobe.
HO: What do you find most interesting about this image?
MS: In the Alps, especially in the Fall, fog is a frequent weather phenomenon. It contributes to that the mountains are not only perceived as impressively beautiful, but also as threatening and mysterious. Although the building itself is shown in a "shadowy" way and is only vaguely visible, this image was published very often and has obtained a certain degree of prominence.

HO: Is there anything that you were trying to communicate through it?
MS: It is worth to explore a place photographically, especially when circumstances do not correspond to the generally accepted perceptions of "ideal" preconditions. It generates indications that often point out to the qualities of architecture and space more effectively than conventional harmonizing ways of expressions can do.

Margherita Spiluttini is an architectural photographer based in Wien.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JIM STEPHENSON

 
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1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): JIM STEPHENSON

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

HO: Where and when was this photograph taken?

JS: The image is of The Serpentine Gallery's Pavilion for 2013 in Hyde Park, London, England. It was taken at 9:38am on June 4th, 2013.

HO: Was it the first time that you had been there?

JS: I'd been visiting the site for a number of weeks on a commission to document the construction of the pavilion. This was my last day on the job, the opening of the completed structure.

HO: What were the physical conditions on site?

JS: The light was especially good, given the temperamental nature of British summers. The sun was out and the morning haze had lifted. The day was beginning to warm up and I was comfortable in a t-shirt, especially having carried my heavy photographic equipment across the park. Hyde Park is a huge green space in central London and as such combines the peacefulness of a park with the hum of distant traffic to remind you you're still in the city.

HO: Are there any special technical aspects about the photograph?

JS: This is a pretty unsophisticated image, in a technical sense. Whilst photographing the pavilion on it's opening day, I noticed a scrum of press agency photographers clamouring for a photo, so I took my camera off it's tripod and shot it handheld. I ran off a couple of frames and wound up liking this one the best. The foreground (right of frame) is important both for context and to frame the scrum, and as with almost all of my work the vertical planes are at least vertical.

HO: What do you find most interesting about this image?

JS: This building only existed for a matter of months before being taken down (it was planned as a temporary structure) and over the summer it was photographed many, many times by lots of different people, not least on it's opening day. I find this idea, of a scrum of photographers photographing a building quite humorous and perhaps casts a different eye over it. This sort of behaviour is usually the reserve of paparazzi spotting an A-list celebrity. Here, the building is the superstar.

HO: Is there anything that you were trying to communicate through it?

JS: This picture wasn't one I planned to take. It's was very much an impromptu moment, so I can't say I was trying to communicate anything in particular through it. That said, once my images were released and started to be used by magazines, newspapers, blogs and so on, this one usually ended up being the most popular one! I like to show people reacting to architecture and using the space in my work as much as possible and this is at the far end of that - an extreme reaction that is tinted with humour. I goes to show that it's not always the images you think that will have the widest appeal!


Jim Stephenson is an architectural photographer and film-maker. 

The selectect image and interview are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): SIMON KENNEDY

 
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1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): SIMON KENNEDY

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where and when was this photograph taken?

SK: At the Heygate Estate (Elephant and Castle, London, England), in November 2011.

HO: Had you been there before?

SK: I visited this site on numerous occasions, also I used to live nearby and have been aware of it for many years.

HO: How did this opportunity come up?

SK: I went there specifically a number of times to make this series of images.

HO: What were the condition on site?

SK: Cold, winter, grey morning. The estate was eerily quiet as most of the inhabitants had moved out. It smelled like London.

HO: Are there any technical aspects about the photograph that you want to point out?

SK: This image was the result of a protracted process of investigation and composition, beginning with a digital camera, and ending with the use of a large format camera. The negative was scanned and subjected to a number of digital augmentations.

HO: Why did you select this image?

SK: This image is probably my favorite from the series. I like the fact that the composition is close to symmetrical, but the trees appear to be thriving, even dancing through the space. The image contains a car, suggesting some degree of inhabitation lingers on.

HO: Is there any particular story that happened during the shooting?

SK: While making this series I often ran into film crews who tried to make me move or leave the site. Since they had no authority to do this, I refused to.

HO: What did you want to communicate through this image?

SK: This image is part of a series examining this estate, which while utopian in intent was notorious through its later lifetime for social problems. These photographs were taken when the estate was empty and awaiting demolition and I am curious to see what remains – can the formal architecture reassert itself now that the inhabitants are gone, does the estate make more sense as an empty artefact than it does full? The estates reversing relationship with nature also fascinates me.

 

Simon Kennedy is a London based architectural photographer.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): NICOLAS GROSPIERRE

 
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1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): NICOLAS GROSPIERRE

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO - When and where was this photograph shot?

NG - This was shot in an Indoor swimming pool, at a Balneological Sanatorium in Druskininkai, Lithuania, in October 2003.

HO - What was the sort of conditions on site?

NG - The conditions on site where typical of that of an abandoned building: mild temperature but quite humid, rather dark but contrasty lighting, the silence was interrupted periodically by dripping water droplets, the smell was that of moulded gypsum. On the whole, it was a rather unpleasant atmosphere.

HO - Can you pecify some technical aspects about the shooting?

NG - The actual taking of the picture was quite elementary: long exposure and small aperture for wide depth of field. I used a very wide angle (40 mm) on a Hasselblad camera

HO - How did you get inside?

NG - I broke into this abandoned structure. It was locked, but not all the entrances were hermetically sealed, so I managed to get inside without breaking any windows. I learned about this building through a vintage Soviet book on architecture entitled "The architecture of Soviet Lithuania".

HO - Was it your first time there?

NG - I had been a few weeks earlier on the site, but was not utterly satisfied with the results, and therefore I decided to make another trip to make additional pictures.

HO - Why did you select this image?

NG - I selected this image because it is quite representative of my work, as far as my documenting little known Soviet architecture. I have a strong feeling to the whole series that this image is part of - entitled Hydroklinika - because it is one of the most original and delirious concrete buildings I was able to photograph, and also because it does not exist any longer in this particular form. The whole structure was transformed into an aquapark, and the interiors were destroyed in the process.

HO - What were you trying to communicate through it?

NG - Well, in this part of my work (the documentation of modernist architecture, mostly from the former socialist countries),  I try to convey as objective as possible a view on buildings I deem interesting. Of course, the choice of buildings is subjective, and reflects my preferences, and here one should look for the meaning of this work, and not in the single image. I have been documenting this kind of architecture for 13 years now, because when I started to do it it was quite neglected and unknown. I thought it was interesting because it broke the conventional thinking about socialist architecture (namely that it were mostly boring grey blocks of flats), and that, on the contrary, there were extraordinary gems that should be exposed - and perhaps salvaged. Also, this sometimes crazy architecture showed yet another side of the communist system, that it were able to produce an architecture which need not be economically viable to see the light of day. By this, I am not trying in any way to justify this system, I am simply pointing out that this feature, which ultimately led to its demise (precisely because of the lack of economic accountability) produced also extraordinary results.

 

Nicolas Grospierre is a Warsaw based photographer.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): GIGI CIFALI

 

1 PHOTO(GRAPHER): GIGI CIFALI

BY HUGO OLIVEIRA

 

HO: Where and when was this photograph taken?

GC: It was taken at the Chadderton Baths, in 2008. It's part of a photographic project called "Absense of Water".

HO: What were the conditions at the site?

GC: Well, some of them were well taken cared of, for example the Soho Baths in London, and Victoria Baths in Manchester. But many of them, even if they were protected by an alarm, were vandalized. The sound of pigeons made these places very spooky,

HO: Are there any particular aspects about the shooting that you want to point out?

GC: Not really. It was important to stay at 3/4 away from the deep end of the pool and make sure the camera - a Hasselblad  503CW - was well centered inside the tank.

HO: How did this project start?

GC: I explored the first site Hornsey baths - now demolished - which was at few steps from my apartment. After that excursion, I started searching for others.

HO: Why did you select this project?

GC: I selected the Chadderton Baths for its beauty deco-style: the white tiles and clear lines made it one of my favorites.

HO: Is there any peculiar story about this photograph?

GC: There is a funny aspect about the permit to photograph these baths. In most cases, the Council rejected the initiative. So, I needed to plan a way to climb inside. In order to find the best access to the building, I would study the planimetry of it, and find myself in weird positions. For once, I did convince the builders to had the access to this particular bath just few hours before its demolition.

HO: What is the most interesting thing about this photograph? What does it reflect?

GC: I have always been interested in memories and in the disappearance of signs that would evoke and testify our history.

 

Gigi Cifali is an Italian photographer based in Milan and London.

The image and interview selected are part of the editorial project "1 Photo(grapher)".