Assignment #2 Modern Florence
Unfortunately, I was sick the day of the site visit. I spent the whole trip with my head spinning and my peripheral vision almost entirely blacked out, which made it difficult to lock in. Because of that, I don’t remember much of the trip. However, here is what I do remember.
I remember turning around and seeing the church in person. No photo could truly do justice to its architecture. The first thing I noticed was the color contrast between thewarm tones of the brick and the cool roof, enhanced by the gloomy weather. When we did the lap around the building, I was amazed by the ways in which the building transformed, as if each step transported you somewhere entirely different.
Then, we entered the building. At first, I did feel uncomfortable; I always feel like a trespasser in places of worship. As we kept walking, however, that discomfort was replaced by wonder. By the way the beams curve throughout the building, playing with the small amounts of light shooting through the minimal windows. By the way the concrete took on a wooden texture. By the way the interior of the building bends and moves, just as the exterior did.
The darkness of the interior which creates the beautiful ambience that left me awestruck is also unfortunately very difficult to capture without a tripod. I had to use a higher ISO than I am normally comfortable with, which left me with a lot of underexposed or grainy photos. I did my best to combat that in Lightroom, but don’t feel I did the greatest job. I fear that in attempting to reduce the grain, my photos lost some of the concrete’s beautiful texture, as well of some other details.
I chose to put the interior shots in black and white because most of the photos were fairly monochromatic, so I felt it more important to emphasize the contrast between the highlights and shadows. I kept the exterior shots in color because I wanted to highlight the contrast between the roof and the body of the building, which is what initially drew me into the place.
Overall, I am proud of these photos, especially considering how unwell I was feeling during the visit. Though there are of course elements I would fix, I feel I was able to adequately capture my experience of the space.
ALL PHOTOS:
