Architecture is all about exits and entrances, when you think about it. Never mind the soaring planes, the subtle interplay of volume and materials… getting in and out again is what we want. I imagine the first Neanderthal interior decorator started it off by thinking how good that mammoth skin would like with another opening to the cave. Sorry for the truism, but it helps explain my fascination with doors and windows. Hence this post.
Athens doesn’t have the brickwork so beautifully portrayed by Dreadwear [photoblog.com] and others. Earthquakes here make concrete and ugly-but-safe architecture the norm. Athens does, however, have a lot of cars and few car parks, which tends to make architecture photography difficult. This being the Orthodox Easter Monday, the streets were reasonably empty.
In 1922, Athens was a little more than a village, but with some rococo buildings designed by architects trained in France and Germany. The forced “repatriation” of over a million Greek speakers from what is now Turkey the following year placed a nearly intolerable strain on Athens’ infrastructure. The city’s subsequent population boom led to its current, rather tawdry look. A lot of people hate it (including the inhabitants). I love it.
It’s worth noting that apart from the famous Greek and Roman ruins, Athens is a very modern city thanks to the earthquakes. The oldest extant lay building dates from the late 18th century. Much of the 19th century’s architecture (what is called here “Neo-classical”), is a sop to the antique orders of architecture and is either over-restored or abandoned.
My friend Brian [photoblog.com] made his good lady wife’s head spin (lucky man) with a particular camera effect. I fear I may do the same, if only because of the severe (read: “unoriginal”) verticals in these captures. I’m waiting for reference books on architectural photography and thought I’d have a go first and then compare.
This may be my last post for a while. My sick Canons go in for service tomorrow (a sort of Arsenal-Hospital – ha, ha) and I don’t have the patience to peer at the LCD on my compact.
Apart from the first, all these captures were taken using a manual focus tilt-shift lens, which is ideal to prevent the ‘falling away’ effect inherent in shooting tall subjects from ground height. Any other manky lines are due to the universe, not me. I was using a level on my flash hot-shoe and an architectural focusing screen in-camera.
The light was rather dull and overcast this morning. Architecture, so I’m told, unlike people and flowers, benefits from strong midday light. So I mucked about with overlay blend modes in Photoshop and strong sharpening to achieve a rather apocalyptic effect that appealed to me at the time.
In looking at this post, I realise I've focused on crumbling ruins, broken windows, graffiti and the like. Athens isn't like that so much. The textures and colours got me.
The tree in the foreground really is black - it was burnt during the December riots. The building has been like this for several years. Slightly better if viewed enlarged.
I'm afraid I'm in this one, if only in reflection. I couldn't be bothered to clone myself out - which is a philosophical impossibility if you think about it.
This is, of course, a bar
The same as No. 2, but - obviously - in mono. And I'm still there.
A bookstore - and the canopy is a stone sculpture of an open book.
Can;t remember what this one is or why it's here.
Best viewed enlarged. It looks slightly OOF otherwise.
#2, #7, #8 and #9. Wonderful! Beautiful. Lovely.