Ode to Black | Black Hope III – Animus Black © Julia Anna Gospodarou 2013
This is the second image of this building, you can find the first one, Mystical. This time the long exposure version and one of the best examples of what I call “making the world look perfect”.
To better understand what I mean by that you should see the RAW version of this image, which is the “reality” and then see the processed one, which is “my reality”.
I will make a demonstration of how I worked on this image at the Athens Workshop next month, so whoever will be there will perfectly understand what I mean by making the world look perfect, which is practically the philosophy behind my way or interpreting the world in my images. In short, and speaking about buildings, every building is conceived to look in a certain way by the architect.
Many times, from the initial idea to its realization there is a long way that changes the first image of the architectural object, the “ideal” one. Then, once built and left exposed to fight the elements: rain, or sun, or wind, or simply the years that go by, the building changes again, sometimes not for the best. In the old historical buildings, this aging has a certain charm and shows history, telling their story and I love that, but for the modern buildings, the aesthetic is different.
What I try to do when photographing modern architecture is to search and show the best moment in time that the building has lived and this means trying to improve in any way its present aspect. I’ve been asked many times what I do to make my buildings look “perfect”. I will try to explain this at the workshop and this image was the best possible example, since it was shot up-close and from an angle that showed all the signs of time. Which, I can tell you, were quite evident.
Technical data:
Camera settings:
285.0 sec. @ f/11, Tamron 16-270mm f/3.5-6.3 AF VC PZD @ 18mm, ISO 100.
Processing:
LR4, PS CS5, NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, Topaz B&W Effects (Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2 Full Review) +Topaz DeNoise + Topaz Detail
Update 2013:
Adding a few pieces of info to this post, since in the meanwhile (this post was written last year), this image has become part of a series that won Bronze and Honorable Mention in two categories (Advertising & Fine Art) at PX3 2013 – Prix de la Photographie de Paris and the series has evolved into a very personal study that uses buildings as subjects to express my personal experiences and reactions to the world I come in contact with. More about this in the last post I did about this series: Ode to Black | Black Hope V – Persona Black
See the entire final series here: Ode to Black | Black Hope
Julia Anna Gospodarou - (en)Visionographer
Julia Anna Gospodarou is an internationally acclaimed photographer, architect with a Master degree, author and highly sought-after educator, teaching workshops and lecturing around the world. Founder of (en)Visionography™ and creator of Photography Drawing™, author of the best-selling book From Basics to Fine Art - Black and White Photography , with high distinctions in the most important photography competitions worldwide (International Photography Awards IPA Photographer of the Year, World Photography Awards SWPA and Hasselblad Masters finalist, as well as 80+ more awards), widely published internationally in books and magazines, Julia is passionate about the art in photography and striving to spread it into the world.