MIES MODEL STUDY

 

MIES MODEL STUDY

BY JOACHIM BROHM


Joachim Brohm (Dülken, Germany, 1955). Has a Diploma in Visual Comunications/Photography from the University of Essen GHS/Folkwang (Germany, 1983) and at the Ohio State University in Columbus (USA, 1984). He has had many solo exhibitions all around the world: Germany, Holland, Austria, USA, Italy, Czech Republic, Belgium, UK, China and Portugal. He was Lecturer and Visiting Artist/Professor in Bielefeld, Dortmund, Salzburg, Chicago and Zürich. Since 1993 he is Professor of Photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig where he was also Rector from 2003 to 2011. Has had several monographs as well as been part of many catalogues of group exhibitions. Lives and works in Leipzig.

synopsis

More than 80 years after (Mies van der Rohes) designs for the Krefeld Golf Club were abandoned due to the Great Depression, Belgian architect Paul Robbrecht set about to realize the unfinished project. In 2013, a 1:1 scale model of Mies van der Rohe's original design was realized on the outskirts of Krefeld, a location Mies had selected. Built from unfinished drawings and unrefined plans, the space was rough and incomplete. The temporary space provided rare insight into what could have been – a notion that intrigued photographer Joachim Brohm, and is emphasized by his photographs which draw on the style of the original Modernist photographers, using a mixture of color and black and white images which incorporate diagonal lines and emphasize the open, flowing spaces of the Mies design. Brohm has an extensive background in architectural photography. His portfolio of architectural eccentricities delves into the details of design anomalies, drawing attention to uncommon elements of building design. Brohm was given the opportunity to photograph the life-size Mies model, producing a series of photographs that examine the basic geometry of architectural design, with an emphasis on the unfinished elements of the building.

 

LUGARES

 

LUGARES

POR ALDA JOÃO

 

Alda João é arquitecta pela Faculdade de Arquitectura e Artes da Universidade Lusíada do Porto, desde 2014, ano em que concluiu o Mestrado Integrado em Arquitectura.

Paralelamente, tem-se dedicado, desde 2012, e de forma autodidacta, à fotografia analógica, contando já com algumas exposições individuais e colectivas em Viana do Castelo (Inauguro), Vila Nova de Gaia (#PotênciasDe10) e Lisboa (Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa 2013).

Embora explore diferentes câmaras e formatos, a câmara com que mais gosta de fotografar é uma Canon de 35 mm, que pertenceu ao seu pai. Os seus temas de eleição são Arquitectura, Viagem, Street photography e Paisagem.

 

Synopsis

As imagens contidas nesta série, resultam não só do seu arquivo pessoal de fotografia de viagem, como também do deambular por cidades com as quais se encontrava já familiarizada, e são fruto da descoberta dos habitats que constituem.

Procurou captar as atmosferas dos lugares no momento em que foram visitados, o silêncio e a inquietude dos cenários vazios, e de que forma os habitantes da cidade se apropriam destes espaços.

 

Editor's note

Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

 

LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG PLACES

 

LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG PLACES

BY CARLO CAFFERINI

 

Born in Piacenza, Italy, in 1985, I fell in love with photography when I was a child, traveling in the wake of my uncles around France, Spain and Portugal, always armed with film cameras. I moved to digital reflex four years ago.
My passion for photography has gone hand in hand with a passion for architecture, especially contemporary. For this reason my photographs have always had a special consideration for architecture, and they are often linked with the human figure, without whom the structure would not exist.
Recently my project 'Presence-absence in architecture' has been featured in LensCulture as Editors' Pick and a selection of images from the project has been printed in Aesthetica Magazine - Issue 65. You can see my work here, on 500px, and follow me on instagram.

 

Synopsis

The littleness of human being, the magnificence of human structures.
I was always mesmerized by the great, huge structures built by man through the centuries, in a continuous effort to reach the sky.
Structures in respect to which the man reveals himself in all his smallness and insignificance, but at the same time the first evidence of the greatness and importance of human being, because we must not forget that without man these architectures would not exist.
The project 'Little people, big places' tries to explore this relationship between man and architecture, that shows itself sometimes as a mute dialogue, sometimes as a one-way communication from architecture to unaware people, sometimes instead as a unidirectional communication between people and seemingly indifferent architecture.
Images of this ongoing project are taken in various european cities (Barcelona, Lisboa, Berlin, Rome, Pisa, Milano), visited during my trips.

 

Editor's note

Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

 

LA MURALLA ROJA

 

LA MURALLA ROJA

BY FRED GUILLAUD

 

PROYECTO: LA MURALLA ROJA

AÑO: 1973 LOCALIZACIÓN: CALPE, ALICANTE, SPAIN

CLIENTE: PALOMAR S.A.  

 

Within the context of La Manzanera, La Muralla Roja (The Red Wall) asks to be considered as a case apart. It embodies a clear reference to the popular architecture of the Arab Mediterranean, in particular to the adobe towers of North Africa. The Red Wall is like a fortress which marks a vertical silhouette following the contour lines of the rocky cliff. With this building, RBTA wanted to break the post-Renaissance division between public and private spaces reinterpreting the Mediterranean tradition of the Kasbah. The labyrinth of this recreated Kasbah corresponds to a precise geometric plan based on the typology of the Greek cross with arms 5 meters long, these being grouped in different ways, with service towers (kitchens and bathrooms) at their point of intersection. The geometric basis of the layout is also an approximation to the theories of constructivism, and makes La Muralla Roja a very clear evocation of these. The forms of the building, evoking a constructivist aesthetic, create an ensemble of interconnected patios which provide access to the 50 apartments, which include 60 sqm studios, and two and three-bedroom apartments of 80 and 120 sqm, respectively. On the roof terraces there are solariums, a swimming pool, and a sauna for resident’s use. The criterion of applying to the building a gamut of various colours responds to the intention to give a determined relief to the distinct architectural elements, according to their structural functions. The outside surfaces are painted in various tones of red, to accentuate the contrast with the landscape; patios an stairs, however, area treated with blue tones, such as sky-blue, indigo, violet, to produce a stronger or weaker contrast with the sky or, on the contrary, an optical effect of blending in with it. The intensity of the colours is also related to the light and shows how the combination of these elements can help create a greater illusion of space.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Fred Guillaud (1973, France) is a graduated architect. He moves to Barcelona where he worked during 10 years as a partner architect  in WMA agency before creating his own multidisciplinary company in 2010 QUARCS, Architectural synchronized network.   In parallel of his activity, Fred Guillaud develops an important photographic work exclusively shot in film. His work is mainly centered on architecture and urban landscapes but Fred adds sometime people in his pics to show the social context. His images are simple but forceful, with a small color palette, a strong graphic style and a great serenity. 

 

Site: http://www.fredguillaud.com

 

INSDUSTRIE - LA VALLÉE

 

INSDUSTRIE - LA VALLÉE

BY JENNIFER NIEDERHAUSER SCHLUP

 

Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup, lives and works in Lausanne. She holds a Bachelor in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston and a Master in Art Direction from the Universuty of Art and Design, Lausanne (Ecal). Her work has been shown in various exhibition and publications.

In 2014 she was a FOAM Talent as well as a Vfg nachwuchsförderpreis laureate and shortlisted for the Voies Off Prize. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Atelier Néerlandais — Paris, East Wing Gallery — Dubai, BEARSPACE gallery — London among others.

She is also the Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Adventice Editions (AE), which she founded in 2011 together with graphic designer Florine Bonaventure. AE is an independent publishing house which releases annually the eponymous publication Adventice.

 

Synopsis

La Vallée postulates photography as a creator of stories, whether they fall under pure invention or are rooted in a certain reality. Photography becomes here the
vector of a very personal vision and tends to fiction. Taking the aspect of a fictional study, the project considers la Vallée de Joux and its geographic, demographic and industrial characteristics, emphasizing the heterogeneous aspects of the region. Indeed, this area is a microcosm where traditions, rigor, industry and luxury come together. These notions, sometimes paradoxical, are the result of its location as a remote valley of the Jura and its importance as one of the birthplaces of the watch industry.

La Vallée shows an unconventional perspective on this unique socio-geographic context and contradicts prejudices deeply rooted in the imagination of the foreigner. The photographs, in the guise of documentary and objective images are manipulated, retouched and composed so as to create a manufactured substantiality and disturb the viewer. The whole consists of various series each adopting a specific aesthetic and re-interpreting various photographic genres.The story becomes emblematic and exposes the importance of imagination in creating a site-specific identity.

The series presented here is Industrie.

 

Editor's note

Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

 

FORMA

 

FORMA

POR ANA MIRIAM

Sobre os limites da nossa perceção e do nosso entendimento. Sobre o momento em que parece que podemos agarrar, compreender, mas a verdade nos escapa. Sobre o movimento hesitante que acompanha esse momento, sobre esse mistério. Um peso, uma estranheza, uma solidão. Também um encantamento, um silêncio bom e uma promessa de algo que se esconde, algo que está longe, que é demasiado grande ou demasiado pequeno. Sobre a nossa perceção e entendimento do espaço. O que é o vazio, o que existe entre as coisas, o que as separa ou as une. Tentando mostrar o espaço, imaginando-lhe formas. À procura desse vazio, encontrei outras coisas difíceis de ver, coisas opacas, abismos, escuridão e demasiada luz. Continuo à procura, na noite, na neve, no nevoeiro.

SOBRE O AUTOR:

Ana Miriam estudou Artes Plásticas no Porto e em Bordéus e frequenta o Mestrado em Criação Artística Contemporânea, na Universidade de Aveiro. O seu trabalho fotográfico explora diferentes aspetos da vivência do espaço em contextos e escalas distintos, do urbano ao rural e da casa à paisagem. Trabalha como freelancer no âmbito da fotografia de arquitetura e é formadora na área da fotografia.

 

FORJA

 

FORJA

BY VASCO NOBRE LOPES

Vasco Nobre Lopes completed his M.Arch at UAL University (Lisbon) in 2007 and collaborated with several Portuguese architectural offices. In 2012 he established the "Forja Project" - Research/Post-Crisis/Resilient/Solutions. 

Synopsis

FORJA - def.:

Construct, contrive, create, devise, fabricate, fashion, form, frame, hammer out, invent, make, mould, shape, work  

2    coin, copy, counterfeit, fake, falsify, feign, imitate.

There is an old saying that goes "ignorance is no excuse". Well, at this point one could take it a stop further and say ignorance can be fatal. A young person today must have the technology and the know-how. Never before has self sufficiency and education been so important and they are virtually inseparable from survival.

All photographs were made in the working process of the architectural studio forja.

Editor´s note

The presented project was selected from a spontaneous submission made by Vasco Lopes. Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

 

FICTIONS

 

FICTIONS

BY FILIP DUJARDIN

Filip Dujardin (Ghent, Belgium, 1971) is an Art Historian (University of Ghent) specialized in Architecture and Photography (Academy of Ghent). He was technical assistant of Magnum-Photographer Carl De Keyzer and collaborated with Frederik Vercruysse.

He has published his work in national and international books and magazines, participated in several individual and group exhibitions since 2007, and has collaborated several times with scopio Editorial Line: invited author in the section Projects of scopio magazine aboveground architecture, speaker at the congress ON THE SURFACE: Public Space and Architectural images in debate and invited photographer to integrate the jury of the international photography contest aboveground territory.

His significant and inspiring work is mostly characterized by an artistic strategy that uses the tools of digital imaging as an opportunity for a postmodern project that unveils the pretence of photographic objectivity, making us more attentive to the architecture that surrounds us and to where we live and work.

Filip Dujardin uses the power of digital manipulation not to mask or denature a profound reality, but to call our critical attention to it, and his work is used, not to blur our ontological distinctions between the imaginary and the real, but to sharpen our critical attitude towards the existing architecture of today.


Pedro Leão Neto

 

ESCULTURA DO INCONSCIENTE

 

ESCULTURA DO INCONSCIENTE

POR TATEWAKI NIO


Tatewaki Nio nasceu em Kobe, Japão em 1971. Vive e trabalha em São Paulo desde 1998. Formado em sociologia pela Universidade de Sophia (Tóquio, Japão) estudou fotografia no SENAC (São Paulo, Brasil). Com várias exposições individuais e colectivas, prémios e colecções é representado pela Fauna Galeria. 

Synopsis

Escultura do Inconsciente investiga a paisagem de uma urbe em transformação, resultado da especulação imobiliária e da construção de grandes empreendimentos comerciais avassaladores, que transpõem a construção espontânea da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo do Brasil. Através deste projecto, Nio trata da efemeridade dos espaços em (des)construção a partir do registo dos vestígios e do resultado deste conflito. Terrenos baldios e prédios prestes a serem demolidos são alguns dos temas tratados. Os vazios registados são compostos por uma estranha presença sobre – humana. O uso de uma câmera de grande formato, permite que uma maior quantidade de detalhes dessa paisagem moldem enormes criaturas nas cidades. Num ato demorado e atento - oposto ao ritmo vertiginoso de transformação da paisagem -, este projecto demonstra a importância desses objetos, esculturas que esboçam fragilidade na eminência de sua extinção.

Iniciado em 2006 e continuado até hoje o projeto Escultura do Inconsciente contém mais de 70 imagens concluídas.

Editor´s note

The presented project was selected from a spontaneous submission. Our aim is to disseminate and bring to light telling work of emergent or young photographers.

 

EDUCAÇÃO PARA TODOS

 

EDUCAÇÃO PARA TODOS

POR GUILHERME BERGAMINI

 

Guilherme Bergamini (Belo Horizonte, Brasil), formado em jornalismo, trabalha com fotografia há quase duas décadas. Premiado em concursos nacionais, participou de festivais e exposições coletivas e individuais, além de ter fotos publicadas em diferentes veículos de comunicação brasileiros.

 

Sinopse

Educar é conquistar novos horizontes, novas possibilidades de vida, mais digna e justa. Conhecimento abre portas e rompe fronteiras, permitindo que nossos sonhos e desejos sejam realizados. Não investir em educação é perpetuar a ignorância, o domínio de uma minoria perante a maioria. Informação é poder de escolha, é saber definir quem irá proporcionar o crescimento de uma nação, a igualdade entre os povos e a soberania de um Estado. O País que não educa permanece estagnado, sem horizontes e fadado ao fracasso. Estudar é alcançar novos mundos, com a certeza de um horizonte justo, igualitário e fraterno. Uma democracia consolidada para todos.

 

Nota do Editor

O projecto apresentado foi seleccionado a partir de uma candidatura espontânea de Guilherme Bergamini. O nosso objectivo é divulgar e trazer à luz o trabalho de jovens fotógrafos emergentes.

 

DEGENERATION

 

DEGENERATION

BY ALEXIS STANISLAUS CURRIE

 

Having grown up in the North of England, amidst a once great swathe of heavy industry, I have been fascinated by the terminal decline of an industrialised society and its tumultuous move towards the post-industrial, and ultimately globalised, society that we inhabit today. This has been a gradual and at times painful transition towards the latter part of the 20th century. Now in the 21st century, we live in a technological age reliant upon ever increasing levels of globalisation and homogenisation, fraught with its own societal complexities and nuances.

My photographic practice is concerned with exploring and documenting these urban and industrial environments. Often overlooked or ignored, these places impact heavily upon the individual subconscious. It is within this construct that a greater understanding of the human psyche is sought, and how the implications of the modern world reflect upon our everyday being. By documenting the architecture and infrastructure of the hidden and banal, the possibility arises to meditate upon, not just the space that we inhabit, but also the space within ourselves.

 

Synopsis

In the post-war era Britain's population was faced with massive housing shortages. The existing housing stock was often disgracefully inadequate for even the most basic of needs. Modernist architecture with its close links to left wing ideology reflected a progressive solution to the practical and social issues of the time.

At its height in the 50’s Social Housing was unquestionably a central pillar of Britain's regeneration following the devastation of the Second World War. Modern, and affordable, it represented an advancement in society; where the working classes were for the first time given the opportunity to live in a decent home. These projects and buildings were often striking exercises, bold and futuristic in their character and breathtaking in the scale of their ambition.

Of course not everything proposed and executed by the town planners was to be warmly received. The high level philosophy and design of Corbusier was all too frequently brought crashing down to earth by the constraints of both economy and ability. 

Beyond the physical our psychological relationship towards these estates and buildings was quickly and profoundly altered. Far from being symbols of hope and egalitarianism, estates became places to avoid. The notoriety increased exponentially through the 80's and 90's. Names such as Moss Side or Red Road taking on almost mythic proportions, becoming as much feared and despised as the very slums and tenements which they replaced.

The rampant excesses of the housing market in the late 1990’s, which lead to an Englishman's home becoming not only his castle but his retirement fund, all but finished the job started almost thirty years earlier. The unabashed pursuit of wealth and self-interest seeming to prove that there really was no such thing as society after all.

Housing Estates today have come to be associated with high levels of social stigma; they are seen as places of social exclusion. Homes to the forgotten under-classes. They provide the stage backdrop to our broken society neuroses. As compelling and titillating as any of Hogarth's scenes.

But in the midst of all the media hyperbole and theorising what are these places? Even today are they not people's homes? Places where children play and belong, where treasured childhood memories are formed however repellant this may seem to middle class observers?

What do we see when we look at these images of neglect and decay? How strikingly the physical neglect and abandonment of these homes and proud ambitions seems to reflect the disintegration and malaise of our society as a whole and perhaps even ourselves as individuals.

 

CINETEATRO

 

CINETEATRO

BY ESTELA IZUEL

 

Estela Izuel (Argentina, 1966) is an award winning photographer who works in personal-essay photography.

She graduated from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and has received the National Art Fund Grant in 2012, a Grant for artistic creation from the Antorchas Foundation, and participated at the Fotofest portfolio review (Houston). Estela has received the 1º Chandon Cultural Award from the Caraffa Art Museum, the 2º Prize from the “VI Klemm Foundation for Visual Arts Award”.

Izuel's work was presented at ArteBA, by Fundación del Banco Provincia de Buenos Aires. She has exhibited at the Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, Buenos Aires Photo: Petrobras Award, Fundación Andreani Award, Museo Caraffa, Senado de la provincia de Buenos Aires, Museo de Arte Moderno (MAMBA), Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas.

Her works have been acquired by Museo Caraffa, Museo de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, Fundación Federico Klemm, Museo de las Américas (Denver) and private collections from Argentina, Chile and USA.

 

Synopsis

"Faced with a threatened existence, the record of images is basic. Hence the picture is the right way to fix a far away time. 

To Estela Izuel, theaters are not only the reason. The images shown do not refer to life as theatre, we only found a speculative, distant registration. Inside them, recorded with objective eye, focuses on the relationship between space use and men who are gone. The absence of people is strange, is that we have never seen an illuminated and empty theater. No event, no action, only the state of things. The void left when customs change. 

Images are not the record of physical space. They are traces of social habits that have passed; and that she photographs. Empty rigorously environments that surround us and invite to look at them again.

But the axial gaze is diverted; and subjectivity emerges. This marks the tension between public space, private space and dramatic space. Because a foreshorten view shows a private look.

The theatre is not in the dramatic action that happens but in architecture. A frozen scene leads us inevitably to the narration of the events that happened."

Dardo Arbide

 

BARCELONA

 

BARCELONA

BY XAVIER RIBAS

Xavier Ribas is a photographer and lecturer at the University of Brighton, and visiting lecturer at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. He studied Social Anthropology at the University of Barcelona (1990) and Documentary Photography at the Newport School of Art and Design (1993). Currently lives and works in Brighton and Barcelona.

His photographic works investigate notions of place, memory and the city. Trained as an anthropologist, his work is also informed by former professional experience in the fields of urban planning and architecture.

Xavier Ribas has received numerous international commissions from organisations such as the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain - FNAC (France), the International Photography Research network – IPRN (Uk), the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art – MACBA (Spain), the Zoneattive / Rome International Photography Bienale (Italy) and the Goethe Institut (Germany). Two monographs of his work are published: Xavier Ribas (University of Salamanca, 1998) and Sanctuary (Editorial Gustavo Gili, 2005).

Ribas' photographs of the marginal spaces on the periphery of Barcelona, taken between 1994-1997, and published as a monograph in 1998, focus on the dichotomy between the urban definition, or indefinition, of public spaces and the character of everyday practice. His images suggest that while the notion of the super-modern 'non-place' (Marc Augé) implies the idea of alienation, the residual vacant plot and the open ground of the city's edge can be thought as spaces of freedom.

This project was published in scopio magazine, aboveground: territory. 


Pedro Leão Neto