Sir Norman Foster Gherkin in London
“I am the Empire at the end of the decadence.”
(Paul Verlaine)
Godzilla’s image is a reflexive reminder of things past. My photography reflects in the smallest way Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past”. It seems almost impossible to mention the future past without mentioning Proust. I saw Godzilla when I was four or five. That joy and horror stamped across my eyes remains a constant reminder of the visual impact that all creative efforts need.
Generations disappear, legacy’s impact remains.
The bible seems to play a small role in my collective archives. There is always a “beget”. Like babies airlifted by storks in Walt Disney animations, one architect begets another and as soon as you know tribes are founded.
Architects are sometimes like “birds of a feather…”. They are in constant motion, creating legacies and histories. Their present is a link to our past and to our future: they design the footprints for our lives. Their constant motion is an attempt to create different ways to accept and apply new spaces. It is almost like watching a new embryo grow in a Petri dish.
I have photographed hundreds of architects and thousands of examples of their works. But what is the most compelling, is that like embryos, the architects ideas and concepts start with their own personal “Oz”.
The United Nations and more…Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer in his Rio Studio… A most magnificent day
Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis 1958 Expo Philips Pavilion
The genius ideas of Corbusier, Mies Van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn and more are generational giants who hover over contemporary giants and who in turn share the past and like great mixologists creating patterns of change for the future.
Naïvely I have asked every living architect I have met: Who are your heroes, who are your mentors? Sheepish responses break the tensions between strangers, but something remains: The four names above are connected to almost every voice working today. It is just possible that there might be a few who hesitate to utter Oscar Niemeyer.
I have learned the architects yearn to meld their fresh ideas into intriguing concepts until yet again a new brood assumes the leadership. The embryo continues to produce new generations, children from our past become the mentors and the cycle continues.
The Aged Architect
I don’t know our built empire well enough to critique it. Sometimes I see work that fails to live up to what I embrace as greatness. Sometimes there are secrets to why an architect may fail to live up to his/her reputation. Maybe the work is hindered by money constraints and money overlords.
I remember a very famous architect breaking down and crying while relating a story about a patrons abuse. The architect knew he had something special. He knew this new design could become something to appreciate for quite sometime. The patron ridiculed and abused the architects character and design. The work became harnessed with restraints. The work never became the great ideal.
The powers that sometimes rule over the creative genius who sometimes resides in chaos can be demonic. The architect an aged giant became a child and teared up, he felt remorse for sharing the intimacy. But with all my heart I know the intimate share allows me to appreciate the visual experience in a new and evolved way. I can shift the share to my lens. The voices of all architects and architecture became motivational. I now see beyond the facade of the man or the work. And try and infuse my pictures with the layers of others.
Edward Hopper
Ricardo Bofill Barcelona
I find myself feeling “Hopperesque” looking out at the world’s great game of architectural “Blitz Chess” filling the city’s footprint. When a commission or a great day for photography is not in my calendar, buildings old and new seem to dance in my sights. Tall ferocious structures, seem to reign. Old Lillian Gish like brownstones hold court while others decay. Somewhere tall sleek and new to town rises a thousand feet into the sky.
Architects are amazing creators. Every fete creates new challenges for the next new design. After awhile the conversation turns to the new theoretical children. Their legions begin to move up life’s ladder. From my vantage point It is exciting to observe. The personal and public narratives get a bit louder. Decades pass and new conversations arise, new embryos, and a new favorite child is born.
Herzog and de Meuron sit atop Anish Kapoor 56 Leonard Street NYC