Image 10–1. KEYWORDS: architecture; building; Chicago; city; closed composition; hotel; office; sky; skyscraper; Trump Tower; urban; vanishing point
I envy architects. Not only do they have the rare profession that crosses over between art and science, but they can also play god by creating an environment for the people. Unable to satisfy my envy in this lifetime, I choose to photograph architecture instead.
Although the structures that architects create serve as living and working spaces, they are also pieces of art, not unlike gigantic sculptures. Images 10–1 through 10–7 were created with that idea in mind. Trump Tower (image 10–1), the arch of St. Louis (image 10–2), two pedestrian bridges in Denver (images 10–3 and 10–4), the Denver Art Museum (image 10–5), and the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth (image 10–6)—none of these subjects are really portrayed as buildings; they are presented for their formal beauty. The fins (image 10–7) are Menil Collection, designed by Renzo Piano, and function to bring in natural light into the gallery without allowing direct light to shine on the art—but they are pure formal fun in my image.
Image 10–2. KEYWORDS: arch; architecture; Gateway Arch; Jefferson National Expansion Memorial; Missouri; St. Louis Arch; St. Luis
Image 10–3. KEYWORDS: architecture; cable; cable-stayed bridge; Denver; footbridge; Millennium Bridge; pedestrian bridge; post-tensioned; structure
Image 10–4. KEYWORDS: architecture; cable; Denver; footbridge; Highland Bridge; pedestrian bridge; structure
“None of these subjects are really portrayed as buildings . . .”
Image 10–5. KEYWORDS: architect; architecture; Daniel Libeskind; deconstructivism; Denver; Denver Art Museum; postmodernism
Image 10–6. KEYWORDS: angel; Bass opera house; concert hall; horn; music hall; Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall; office building; sculpture; skyscraper; trumpet; Wells Fargo
Image 10–7. KEYWORDS: architecture; ceiling; fins; Houston; Menil Collection; museum; Renzo Piano
Image 10–8. KEYWORDS: Brooklyn Bridge; city; dusk; East River; Freedom Tower; light; Manhattan; New York; night; skyline; under construction; urban
Image 10–9. KEYWORDS: bridge; city; Dallas; skyline; sunrise; sunset; train; transportation
Images 10–8 and 10–9, two images with interestingly similar compositions (not intended), depict architecture with its end users (lots of them!) in mind. Image 10–8 shows New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge. This bridge, over a century old, is going strong and still serving a modern city. Image 10–9 portrays Dallas with an unnamed railroad bridge. The payloads of the trains are clearly industrial. These are two similar images, both depicting human activities, but they are still drastically different.
“This bridge, over a century old, is going strong and still serving a modern city.”
Images 10–10 and 10–11 are good examples of images that can be created as a close examination of people living in the spaces designed by architects. Image 10–10 shows a pedestrian (my wife, to be exact—it is good for a stock photographers to have companions around, so model releases aren’t too hard to obtain!) walking up some stylishly designed stairs. Image 10–11 depicts a car zooming through a steel bridge in Chicago, one of many such structures that connect the city on both sides of the Chicago River.
Image 10–10. KEYWORDS: Denver; handrail; pedestrian; rule of thirds; shadow; stairs; walk
Image 10–11. KEYWORDS: beam; blur; bridge; car; Chicago; Chicago River; girder; mesh; motion; motion blur; movement; moving; rivet; steel; traffic; truck
Image 10–12. KEYWORDS: architecture; building; city; Dallas; Fountain Place; office; skyscraper; Texas; urban
Image 10–13. KEYWORDS: city; commerce; Fort Worth; modern architecture; office building; Texas; Trinity River Campus; urban
Conventional, But With a Twist
Images 10–12 and 10–13 are two more conventional views of architecture, but there are still some twists. Image 10–12 “frames” the famed Dallas landmark, Fountain Place, with a dark street, showcasing it as the only brightly lit structure in this composition. In image 10–13, a cluster of office buildings are presented in a rhythmic way that is in sync with the style of the architecture.
“The viewer’s attention needs to be reined in, especially in this era of short attention spans.”
The viewer’s attention needs to be reined in, especially in this era of short attention spans. One tool to achieve this is framing: using secondary subjects to create a margin around the subject of interest in order to shine a spotlight on it. Image 10–12 is an example of framing. The dark street and pressing buildings on its sides direct all the attention to Fountain Place, one of the landmarks of downtown Dallas. This composition was made possible by light at a certain time of the day, when only our subject of interest was well lit.
Image 10–14. KEYWORDS: backstage; closed; concert hall; construction; dark; empty; hall; Lincoln Center; music hall; musical; opera house; renovation; scaffold; seats; stage; theater
Rarity is one of the keys to success in stock photography—and even a commonplace subject can have a rare moment. Lincoln Center’s concert hall is not an unusual sight, but seeing it covered in scaffolds for renovation, as shown in image 10–14, was unusual. Whether or not it is identifiable as the prestigious Lincoln Center is not critical; an image of a concert hall under renovation is not so easy to find in the stock photography market.
“Rarity is one of the keys to success in stock photography . . .”
Image 10–15. KEYWORDS: supreme court, New York, building, architecture, church, twilight, tower, Roman, column