Category Archives: Architecture

Portraits of the Revolution

Portraits of the Revolution, 2016

The northern districts of Havana are an architectural treasure of colonial style, neoclassic, art deco, Spanish baroque, modernism and, surprisingly little brutalism. The 50 years of neglect have preserved Havana as a unique place without the architectural atrocities found so often in our modern cities. This architectural heritage, the abundance of American cars from the 1950s, and the life and character of its inhabitants make Havana one of the visually richest and photo-friendliest places to visit. At first sight, one has the impression that nothing ever changes; some of your images may have been shot last week or fifty years ago. But change happens, some of which I was, unintendedly, able to capture in a series of images.

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The Colors of Mexico

On a recent trip to the colonial cities around Mexico City and on the Yucatan peninsula, I was blown away by the colors in the cities and villages. In Europe, nobody would paint a house in saturated pink, blue, or orange, and in most places, this is even forbidden*.

Mexican culture, in general, is bursting with color, from vivid-colored textiles and folk art to buildings in a large color palette. But it wouldn’t fit if I simply posted some colorful images of a recent trip. There is almost always a technical aspect to discuss. This time, it’s the oversaturated colors due to wrong camera calibration and/or RAW converters serving the demand for vivid-looking images.

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Enhancing Image Quality by Oversampling

Pantheon, Paris, France

Getting rid of digital noise in a single picture often leads to a loss of image detail. Noise is traded against smudge. On the other hand, astronomers have long been using computational imaging techniques for low-noise photography. What distinguishes the approaches in this area, versus techniques used on a single exposure, is the fact that adding and averaging data reduces noise without giving up on image detail.

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An Engineer in Havana

Portraits of the Revolution: Che Guevara, Fidel and Raul Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, La Habana, Cuba

Havana has been for long on my bucket list. Havana’s heritage of architecture, the abundance of American cars from the 1950s (used as collective taxis or tourist transport), and the life and character of its inhabitants make Havana one of the visually richest and – still – photo-friendliest places to visit. The rich color palette of the buildings combined with the tropical sun yields an amazing quality of light.

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Brutalist Architecture

Habitat 67: Montreal, Canada. Moshe Sadie, 1967

Cold-hearted, inhuman, monstrous: there is hardly a more controversial architectural style than Brutalism. The term stems from the French word beton brut coined by Swiss architect Le Corbusier to describe his choice of raw concrete for its raw and unpretentious honesty.

Brutalism gained momentum in the 1960s for pre-fabricated, low-cost housing, shopping centres and government buildings, and had a strong position in the architecture of European communist countries. This architectural style, sometimes also referred to as bunker architecture is almost universally considered as ugly. Urban decay due to the poor ageing of steel-reinforced concrete, and the surfaces being prone to graffiti, has not helped in this perception.

And yet, these minimalistic interactions of patterns, light, and form have a potential to lead to powerful images. It’s all about leading lines and details, accentuated by focal lengths in the ranges of 14-18 mm and 130-200 mm.

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