Assignment 1: 4 - The Arabella High-Rise Building

The fourth and possibly final major building in this sequence of architectural studies is the 40 year old Arabella High-Rise Building, completed in 1969.  This is a mixed use building containing the Arabella Sheraton hotel with 467 bedrooms, 500 rental apartments and 100 offices and medical clinic.  It is a massive slab of concrete rising out of the Arabella Park development.  This was the first place I stayed when I first visited Munich for a job interview and so I have a soft spot for its strange architecture.

On my way to photograph the building I passed by the HypoVereinsBank once more and shot the following two frames, taking advantage of the colour balance between the steel grey building and the overcast sky.  rather than carefully align the verticals I have allowed the building to tip backwards a little producing a more human perspective on the building:

Arriving at my goal, I shot 3 images from different positions looking at the hotel through the surrounding trees, placing the building into its environment.  With each of these photographs I am trying to break up the flat structure of the building.

Closer up the unusual design of the facade containing rows of balconies becomes clear:

I prefer very flat front on shots of large buildings, deliberately minimizing perspective, focusing instead on texture and colour.  However, this building offers quite striking perspectives:

Moving around to the other side of the building and into the shopping area within Arabella Park, the building becomes a back drop against which I can juxtapose other buildings.  The following two images are alternate views stepping back around 25m between taking the two frames

In each of the above two photographs I have very specifically avoided inclusion of the sky to try and present a sense of enclosure and emphasize the height of the Arabella building. Stepping back even further diminishes the building, but adds further context

I now find that the work flow is a smooth process and requires limited active application in order to produce well structured images using a shifted lens.

Reading: Photography - A Concise History

The title of this small volume by Ian Jeffrey suggests its major advantage,it is a short and easy read.  As I wrte this I am in the middle of the night in Califronia after a 12 hour flight, 4 hours of which were dedicated to reading this book.  After a few interesting, but turgid books, this was a breath of fresh air, accessible and written in an excellent style.

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Written in the early 80's the book terminates its story just prior to the rise of digitl imaging and so presents a view of the world of film rather than pixels.  Each chapter considers an element of photographic history beginning with discovery and working through some of the major debates, in particular how Photography moved from a simple record to besoming high art. Coverage is very much orientated around France, Germany, the UK, and USA, I almost get the impression from the book that the history of photography evolved only in these countries, this is probably the major weakness of the treatment.  I am now reading the wider scoped "Photography: A culutural History" by Mary Warner Marien, a much more complete and thought provoking look at the same subject, however, I gained much by reading Jeffrey's book first.

Reading: Industrielandschaften

Yesterdays trip to my favorite discounted book shop turned up another gem of German photography, Industrielandschaften (Industrial Landscapes) by Bernd and Hilla Becher, at half the normal price on Amazon, but still quite expensive at 40 Euros.  However, money well spent, this book is a remarkable record of heavy industry in Europe and America.

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The photos were taken over a period of 30-40 years, starting in the mid 1960's.  Each stark black and white image documents the industrial past, buildings that now are probably gone.  This is typical of their meticulous typographies of industrial buildings, however, these are the images that I am most interested in.  Using a large format camera each image is very carefully composed to present an objective view of the buildings in the frame, the goal was to record a vanishing landscape as faithfully as possible.  There is no romanticization or sunset lighting, the buildings are almost brutally photographed, these are machines that consume human beings.  Very noticeable is the complete absence of people in the frames, the building is the subject not the activity it is supporting.

Commented on many times, but still very striking on looking at these photographs for the first time is the sense of geometric design in the landscapes and the similarity between buildings separated by thousands of miles but linked in function. This is good example of form following function.  Another aspect of the photographs is the frequent inclusion of domestic buildings sitting alongside the grim factories and mines, I am immediately drawn to them with the thoughts of the lives that were lived there.

This is not a subject that I am necessarily drawn to for my own work, however, there is a great deal to learn from the compositional structure of their work and the methodical approach to documenting a critical aspect of our lives that is usually ignored or even shunned, due to mistaken views of its ugliness.

Assignment 1: 3 - The Hypovereinsbank

Just across the street from Forum Bogenhausen is one of Munichs most impressive modern buildings, built in 1981 it dominates the surrounding skyline, very few buildings exceed its 114m height.  Photographically most images are taken from just below the towers looking up, creating dramatic perspective, however, this is not going to work well with a 24mm tilt-shift lens and is a rather clichéd view of the building.  For this assignment I want to place it into its surrounding environment.

The first two images are designed to provide a view of the immediate area, I like the juxtaposition of the bicycles with the bank.

Stepping back a little, the following two images show the bank shot from outside the subway station that brings its employees to their lofty office.  In this pair the second has better context.

Stepping even further back, I can include a number of the local office buildings, Forum Bogenhausen and the Siemens building.  The first image is taken with the camera deliberately lowered into scrubby vegetation that has grown up during some construction work nearby.

Coming back a couple of hours later, about 15 minutes after sunset, I had around 30 minutes before full dark to image the area in a more dramatic light.  At this time of year sunset is at almost exactly 5pm, so during twilight the offices are still occupied and the buildings come to life.  They exhibit far more personality, although now imaging any people is impossible as the exposure times are in the 10-30s bracket.  In the following sequence, the third image balances the available and artificial light best. The trails left by the cars add some movement to the images, not that I have any choice in a busy city during the rush hour.

Finally I left the Hypoveriensbank and walked around 200m down the street to another dramatic glass clad building.  This was a more challenging photograph to take as the light was almost gone and shutter speeds of even 30s could only come from an increase in ISO from 100 to 200.  I also wanted to image the overhead crane in the shot against the deep blue sky.  The two exposures only vary in the degree to which the light trails from the passing traffic impose into the image.  I cannot decide if this adds movement, or is a bit too much of a photographic cliché.

At this stage I am comfortable in my work flow, both pre, during and post shooting.  The editing and processing is a smooth process, although I am still not down to the 8-12 images that I plan to submit for this assignment.  I could stop now as I feel I have achieved the stated goal, but there are still 2 or 3 buildings/complexes that I would like to photograph, this assignment is providing a nice excuse to do some architectural studies in my neighbourhood.

However, any more photography will have to wait for a week or so as I head to California tomorrow for a 3 day business meeting, 24 hours on a plane for 24 hours of meetings!  Well it gives me a chance to do some serious reading, so expect to be able to add a book review or two to the blog soon.

Assignment 1: 2 - Forum Bogenhausen

For the past couple of days the weather has been very clear with a soft blue sky and low sun.  That and a slowing in my work load has meant that I have had the chance to take a couple of breaks and take a few photographs.  Increasingly my attention is turning to the buildings in and around Park Bogenhausen, the stretch of land bounded in the South by the tower block housing development and in the North by the Arabella Park complex.  In between is a very new development, open for only 1 or 2 years, Forum Bogenhausen.  This is a mix of Office and Retail space, including the headquarters of the Munchener Bank.  Located directly opposite the HQ of the HypoVereinsBank, this area of Munich is rapidly becoming a small financial district, wonder how long it'll be before that name is applied by some developer keen to raise rents and real estate value?

From street level the complex is divided into two distinct zones, going down a slope you arrive at a number of supermarkets and drug stores, going up a ramp you are in the office area directly above the shops.  Access to both is through a dramatic steel clad square arch, the dominant architectural theme of the development.  My first photograph images the arch in full and shows the basic topography of the location:

This photograph is, however, rather flat and lacking in any drama.  Moving closer and framing the arch to the edge of the image creates a far more dramatic perspective, although the office block to the rear is still cut off, although this does not detract from the overall image.

Moving even closer it is possible to separate the office block from the arch and at this point start to provide some detail of the retail area.  I am afraid this is as close as I can get to the shops with my camera, as I have found out in the past they really do not like photographers and as the shopping precinct is technically private ground are within their rights to exclude me.  Sad, but a sign of modern life is that photographers are seen as creeps rather than artists, until of course we are needed for commercial or social event photography.

Moving up onto the roof of the shopping precinct, I have tried to capture some interesting sight lines and perspectives.  The first image provides a documentary description of the green of the roof and the structure of the adjacent buildings, the second is a little to bleak even for me.

From this point I started to look at getting in closer to some of the details and try to emphasize the perspective created by strong convergence of lines in a highly ordered space.

Stepping back I also determined to take some environmental shots that would place the buildings within the streets and other architecture of the area, first of all the Munchener Bank HQ:

Stepping even further back, this shot shows the Forum, from across a nearby road and with the immense block of the Hypovereinsbank in the back ground.

Finally I also had a chance to do some night time photography, this image is after full dark.  It would be better a little earlier when there was colour in the sky. I was returning from taking some other shots in the twilight and so might return to this location earlier in the evening and try and improve the shot

As this is really an exercise in workflow, I would like to comment on that aspect of the shooting.  So far so good, the method I am using for the image capture is becoming more fine tuned, the only real challenge is exposure management due to the strongly reflecting buildings, so am doing more bracketing than I had expected.  The choice of a single 24mm wide angle focal length is also quite challenging, the ability to correct perspective is great, but also dangerous as it is very easy to overdo this and end up with very strange looking photographs.  I also find that their are occasions when a longer focal length would enable a more intimate photograph, 24mm does not permit me to get in close with the people.  Also a camera on a tripod acts to create an exclusion zone around wherever I am positioned.  Out of politeness people try to give me space not wanting to "ruin" the photo, I want them in the frame!

The result is that I am creating a set of technically good (my own opinion of course) photographs that document the architecture and environment of Forum Bogenhausen, but not the people and activity of the district.  My goal here is not social documentary, but I would still welcome some human presence.  Although, perhaps the message here is the sterility of the steel and glass world that we now inhabit in our working lives.

Assignment 1: Workflow

Although the part of this assignment I enjoy most is taking the photographs, this is about developing and then testing a workflow.  After much thought, I have constructed the following workflow.  It is as complete as I can make it at present and is a fair reflection of my current practice, although with more detail than I am probably normally conscious of.  My work is planning and strategy, so I suspect I am a little on the a*** retentive side when it comes to workflow.

I have built it as a PPT slide which I have then exported as a JPG.  I wanted to get this down to a single slide, so it is rather large:

Assignment 1: 1 - Tower Blocks

I tend to work pretty long days, starting around 7am and finishing up after 7pm, so I can sometimes justify nipping out to do a little photography for an hour or so. This morning was a good opportunity, clear skies, low sun and strong Autumn colours.  Not the easiest conditions to work in but if done properly the results can be good.

My goal was to take some photographs of an area of allotments squeezed between a group of 1950's tower blocks and the ultra modern looking Arabella Park development.  On the South side is a raised walkway offering an overlooking viewpoint.  This helps to provide greater depth to the images, although I found that 24mm is rather wide, my previous shots of this area had been done at around 100mm.  The other problem was that the contrast between sky and foreground was very strong and making a balanced shot was hard, all of these have needed substantial brightening in the dark areas.  I am trying to get into the habit of exposing for the highlights and letting the cameras excellent noise control deal with the shadows. However, the fall colours created some interesting images, and the larger angle allowed me to include the Arabella Park buildings in the frame.  

Although not ideal for what I was trying to image the 24mm tilt-shift enables a neat trick, and that is to lock the camera in position and shift the lens fully left and then fully right, taking a photo at each setting.  This yields a panorama shot on a sensor that is effectively 60 x 24mm and an effective 35MP camera.  The downside is light fall off in the corners, so this would need more work before being a useable image.

As the allotments proved something of a challenge I turned the camera to the tower blocks south of the lane I was on.  This meant they would be backlit by a low sun, so again quite challenging lighting conditions.  My interest here was to capture the way that the mature trees (planted over 50 years ago when the blocks were built) overlap the buildings:

I have always admired the black and white images of Alfred Stieglitz photographed in New York, often combining trees and skyscrapers.  I used the shift mechanism during shooting to preserve the verticals, however, care needs to be taken not to overdo this.  The eye expects a tall building to recede as it grows taller, optically correcting this can make the building look very strange

This splayed out look is an optical illusion, the sides of the building are parallel to the frame sides.  I this case I had to correct the overuse of the shift.