Ode to Black | Black Hope III – Animus Black
Ode to Black | Black Hope III – This is the second image of this building. You can find here the first one, Mystical. This image is a long exposure image 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
FURTHER STUDY RESOURCES
FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY, ARCHITECTURE PHOTOGRAPHY, LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY
Find more resources about fine art black and white photography, (en)Visionography, long exposure photography and architecture photography in Julia Anna Gospodarou’s extensive collection of photography tutorials. To receive free future tutorials, you can subscribe here.
Learn more about how to create fine art photography, from vision to processing and the final image in Julia’s video course From Vision to Final Image – Mastering Black and White Photography Processing, in the video tutorial Long Exposure, Architecture, Fine Art Photography – Creating (en)Visionography, and the book From Basics to Fine Art – Black and White Photography, or by attending one of her highly appreciated workshops.
Find Julia’s recommendation for the best software and gear to create fine art photography and curated deals and discounts for these tools.
To study with Julia Anna Gospodarou personally, find out about our
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Founder of (en)Visionography™ and creator of Photography Drawing™, internationally acclaimed fine art photographer, architect, educator, and best-selling author, with 25+ years experience in photography and architecture, Julia Anna Gospodarou is a leader in modern fine art photography who shaped with her work the way architecture fine art photography looks today.
Awarded more than 100 times in the most important photography competitions worldwide, two-time International Photography Awards IPA Photographer of the Year, World Photography Awards SWPA, and Hasselblad Masters Finalist, her work was widely exhibited and published internationally.
With a passion for the world’s civilizations and speaking five languages, Julia was always in the avant-garde of thinking as an architect and a photographer, constantly pushing the limits of what is possible, constantly reinventing herself as an artist and an individual. Her huge love for travel and discoveries and her passion for teaching, art, and photography led her to become in the past one and a half decades one of the world’s top-rated fine art photography educators and workshop organizers.
