Elements

‘Elements’ is a special project for me bringing together my passion for contemporary architecture and black-and-white photography. The idea behind it was to showcase the ingenuity and multiplicity of contemporary façades. Since contemporary architecture is not an architectural movement nor a school of thought, it can offer a multitude of architectural styles which are of great interest to me. The images in this series focus on the architectural detail of contemporary buildings, something easily overlooked in our busy lives, yet something that gives the building its unique identity, making it come alive. I was fascinated by the distinctive aesthetics of abstract shapes and textures and the way various surfaces rendered light and shadow. A central theme of the series is lack of any negative space, a deliberate decision ensuring that the viewer is fully immersed in the subject. I opted for a square crop because the square is a perfect form in which every side is of equal importance giving the appearance of balance. I aimed to remove all distractions from the frame allowing the viewer to focus on the graphic elements such as angles, shapes, patterns, lines and textures and I wished to highlight the contrast between various elements within the image and provide a sense of depth to each photograph. My project has taken me to various locations around the world and will no doubt continue to do so in the foreseeable future. I called the series `Elements’ because I wished to capture the distinct characteristics of each building using the properties of the Chinese Elements of water, wood, fire, earth and metal, the five-fold conceptual scheme that many traditional Chinese fields use to explain a wide array of phenomena. In addition, the word 'Elements' relates to a fragment, a portion of something larger and my images focus on parts of contemporary buildings.