Tag Archives: architecture

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California

Man at Railing

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Man at Railing
Man at Railing

Man at Railing. Getty Center, Los Angeles, California. March 28, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man looks over a railing at the Getty Center

This photograph includes a section of the structures facing the central courtyard at the Los Angeles Getty Center, high on a hill above the Los Angeles area. We visited on a sunny day, that the stark light illuminated the geometrical architecture forms — at upper right are curved surfaces lit by direct sun, and to the left are shadowed areas that are lit by the reflections.

The architecture here seems quite complex to me, with the smaller details of square window panes and stone and metal creating the outside surfaces, and the larger forms angling together in all kinds of interesting ways. The lone figure, a Getty security guard taking a break, was the first thing to catch my attention here, but in the end I think that the buildings themselves are the central subject.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California

Window Shades

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Window Shades
Window Shades

Window Shades. Getty Center, Los Angeles, California. March 28, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A walkway with window shades, Getty Center

I visit the Getty Center (perhaps once or so each year) as much to photograph the architecture as to see the art. The overall effect of the space, on the large and small levels, is stunning. It sits on top of a ridge with long views over the Los Angeles basin and out to see near Santa Monica. The Center sprawls along the top of the ridge, with many levels to the buildings and with an unusual garden below. The details are also fascinating — among other things, rectangular forms are reflected in almost all aspects of the design, yet there are things that are set off at odd angles from this regularity.

I made this photograph in a small interior area, more or less a sort of hallway and stairway with a walkway crossing in front of a wall of windows that are covered by translucent shades. As I looked at it I thought of it as a sort of cubist subject, and I found the colors (the various transparencies and the strips of muted blue sky beyond) and varying decrees of opacity/transparency very interesting.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Southern California

Abandoned Umbrella

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Abandoned Umbrella
Abandoned Umbrella

Abandoned Umbrella. Getty Center, Los Angeles, California. March 28, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An umbrella lies abandoned, Getty Center

Perhaps every year or so I get a chance to visit the Getty Center in Los Angeles. This striking facility is on the top of a ridge that runs along highway 405 as it passes Los Angeles. I first visited quite a few years ago when our oldest son was at UCLA, then later when our daughter was a UCI, and since then on other visits to the area. The collections and exhibits at the center are always worthwhile, and many of the photography exhibits are especially notable.

In addition to the content of the Center, the architecture itself is very interesting and provides a compelling photographic subject for me. If pressed I will admit that I probably go to the Getty as much to see and photograph the place (and people) as I do for the art! The square shapes cover the wall and columns, and are extended into the walkways and elsewhere. The structures seem quite modern in many ways, but the overall effect reminds me a lot of hilltop European castles. (I have a photograph or two from this visit coming up, in which I tried to capture that feeling.) In this photograph I was initially interested in the conjunction of curves and lines and shapes and textures, but I thought that the odd umbrella just sitting there was nice bit of visual dissonance. (In truth, these umbrellas are iconic at the Getty, since visitors can simply borrow them — so you tend to see them all over the place.)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Dissipating Structures

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Dissipating Structures
Dissipating Structures

Dissipating Structures. Chicago, Illinois. August 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Distorted reflections of a crane and Chicago buildings

Every so often I wonder about architects. For the most part we think of them — or at least I do — as folks who are as much about logic and structure as they are about design and form, and when they are about design they don’t usually seem to be particularly whimsical. (With notable exceptions.) Whimsical doesn’t fit the image or the expectations of the typical big business clients who might commission such towers as those found in an urban center like Chicago — these see like people who are more interested in cultivating an image of stability and wealth and power.

But then I look at the window reflections that are the inevitable result of placing plexiglas covered buildings in close proximity to one another and I have to wonder. Are these folk aware of the almost hallucinogenic shapes and forms that appear on the sides of these buildings? In fact, how many people on the streets are away of the abstract and bizarre visual show that is often going on overhead? Here, against the clean and mathematically perfect face of this building, neatly divided into equal grids of alternating shades of blue, appear bizarre visual monstrosities. A red construction crane warps upwards and leans precariously to the right as its upper elements simply fall apart into twists and curlicues. Sections of the reflected buildings are alternately minimized and expanded to gross degrees, and if you look closely at the resulting patterns you might find anything from aerial fish to faces to whatever else you want to imagine.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.