NZ visual diary - entry 8

a different slant - 3 buildings in CBD Auckland

My wife asked a reasonable (and oft-repeated) question: 'Why did you take this photograph?"

My answer this time was more nuanced than my oft-repeated and flippant reply: "I love geometries."

The prevailing constraint (from both economic and aesthetic perspectives) within modern architecture -- at least modern commercial architecture-- is its adherence to rectilinear forms. There's no room for the visionary world of Antoni Gaudi.

When I turn my photographic gaze to commercial architecture, I assume that I'll see fierce rectilinearity. Therefore, what is interesting for me photographically-speaking is some novel combination of striking geometric forms; complex and rich textures; disjointed visual perspectives and muscular dimensionality; and, notably with black & white renderings, the play of light - of shadows, of dappled kisses, of contrasts.

And so, this image . . .

Against the impress of rectilinear dominance, there is a faint expression of the curvilinear in the building facade on the right-side of the image.

There is the curious set of 3 trapezoidal windows in the middle of the photograph, a curiosity in that it defies the strict structure of right-angularity that cements the dominate geometric pattern of the image.

Ah, the textures of the marble across the building on the lower left; the play of shadows and dappled light throughout; and the contrasts of whites and deep blacks.

It speaks to my sensibilities, perhaps also to the reader of this entry.