This photograph is one of a series of photographs of the same location. It stands out from the series for me because it is the least dramatic in the sense that the striking architecture commands the other images in the series while this one, I believe, reveals the soul of the circumstance.

Photographers have many choices over the depiction of places and people and things. It is those choices that create the art of the photograph. Set in the series, this image acts as a commentary, a warning, that all of the flash and drama of the buildings resolves into boxes with offices placed in a dead zone to be surrounded eventually by a landscape of artifice and artificiality. For now, this shot lays it bare for what the compound is despite what it will become and despite the drama of what it can project from other sides and other views of these structures.

This image does not, however, depend on the series itself. On a purely visual level there are the usual touches we can identify with this particular photographer: a formalistic rule of thirds composition; a wonderful color gradient in the sky; an echo of color from the dirt to the the top edge of the sky's gradient; the perfect connection on the diagonal between the color of the buildings and the leaves in the bottom right corner of the frame; and a characteristic sharpness and vibrancy in the image production. All of the available choices were wise.

Krupp, the company building these structure for its own operations, is a massive conglomerate with a concentration in the production of steel in the EU for export to the world. It is more than just a company. It has been until just a few years ago, a single family owned or dominated company for nearly 400 years. It's power throughout the history of modern Germany and Europe has been substantial. The structures depicted in this series are those of its new palaces. It might as well be a royal compound.

So then the choices of the photographer have the capacity to be political as well as artful. I do not know the politics of this artist at all. I do know his sensitivity and humanity.

The time of day, near nightfall; a color tone that is a bit mournful (I don't know why I think so); the overriding sense of emptiness; the lack of human form in fact or by reference in the architecture of composition; the broken stones and piles of dirt seem to stand off as more interesting and more compelling forms than the structures; the beauty in the color of the sky and the ground almost interrupted by the bronze and the grids of these buildings - - all of these say to me that, if not the photographer then the photograph itself, shares my deep concern and distrust of the corporate structure itself and what it has brought upon us all.

There is no invitation to these buildings in this image. Only a fool, it would seem, could be attracted to enter the yellow glow of the center portal. It is false in its warmth and a warning to us all.

Zdjęcie o lekko niepokojącym charakterze.
Kadr jest dobrze wyważony jeśli chodzi o podział na płaszczyzny:
Szarości z lekko mżącymi szczegółami na pierwszym planie (sam dół), drugi zajmujący 1/5 zdjęcia to budynki i ostatni - gładkie niebo.
Miejsce z którego robione było zdjęcie też wydaje się odpowiednie, bo każdy budynek jest pokazany pod innym kątem - daje nam to więcej informacji o otoczeniu. Pomijając fakt że budynki pochylają się w lewo - idealnie.
Najbardziej jednak odpowiadają mi kolory: cała gama szarości przechodząca w grafit a potem w błękit - przecinane jedynie rdzawą poświatą.



"This critique inspired and written by the creative efforts of Critique Guru - Critiquing is Great! - Focus on the artist of tomorrow.