Growing up by the sea and honing his photography skills in the alien Antarctic landscapes during the ANT-XXIII/9 expedition, Hamburg-based Lars Stieger has long been drawn to capturing expansive, desolate landscapes. Equally fascinated by modern architecture, Stieger began using photography to explore the intriguing details of the built environment. He ventures further into this photographic experimentation with his science fiction-inspired “Spaceships” series.
Stieger began taking the photographs in the “Spaceships” series in 2011, while he was traveling to different cities and rural areas throughout Europe. Instead of capturing the entire building, he zooms in on details with mesmerizing symmetric and repetitive patterns that are depicted in grayscale, as if one were looking at parts of a spacecraft. Stieger's futuristic photos evoke a sense of solitude within a vast, unfamiliar space.
“I try to look at [the buildings] as complicated and futuristic objects. So I focus on isolated details like angles and edges to compose unusual views and different perspectives,” Stieger told Archinect in an email.
By showing only parts of a building, he hopes his photos can instill curiosity and imagination in the people who encounter his work. “My main goal is to let the viewer wonder what this kind of building is about,” he explained.
In comparison to photographing landscapes, which require ideal weather and lighting conditions, Stieger believes architectural details offer a little more leeway. “Architectural details can be interesting and mysterious even in bad weather or low light,” he said.
Find more photos in the gallery below.
Editor/Writer for Archinect + sister site Bustler. Leans toward: public interest design, illustration, graphic design, history, and general pop-culture geekiness, among other things. Enjoys a good bowl of noodles.
6 Comments
these are really nice. strongly remind me of one of archinect's very first 'in focus' features with kim høltermand.
Lovely
Tal vez, el arquitecto diseño el detalle esperando que así se descubra, como una nave espacial de serie de televisión.
But, the most singular for me, is to discover the architecture running with bad weather or low light.
So is this not an official In Focus:? I suppose the Q + A format is missing...
The In Focus series includes specific questions about the photographer's relationship with architecture and their approach to capturing buildings.
It looks soooo imresive. I have seen something like that in Berlin. How did you come up with such design?
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