#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.
Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. While we use our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform.
We spoke to Donald Niebyl, the administrator of @spomenikdatabase. After researching and subsequently traveling to and documenting the significant majority of former Yugoslavia's spomeniks, those extra-large monuments to bygone wars, Niebyl shared his findings in a book and through social media (the Spomenik Monument Database book is also available in our online shop).
What is your relationship to architecture?
It is the same as everyone else... we all live in a built environment and each of our lives play out within that architectural framework. While I am not myself professionally trained in architecture and design, I nonetheless take great interest in exploring in what ways the architecture of our built environment has intense cultural impacts on our lives as individuals and upon society as a whole. As architecture changes, the people who live within this transforming constructed landscape are changed.
Thus, I find it of great importance that societies take greater care and effort in critically analyzing and evaluating what nature of architecture is built in their communities. Where beautiful and culturally distinct architecture is created, communities are impacted positively, however, where bland and unattractive architecture is built, communities suffer. As such, my relationship with architecture is deeply personal and one which I am always cultivating further.
How did you decide you would focus on spomeniks?
Several years ago I came across some very distinct and visually stunning imagines of abstract sculptures which I later found were WWII monuments built during the former Yugoslav era. However, absolutely no context or information was provided about them. Yet, even without knowing anything about these monuments, it was clear that their ambitious shapes were expressing great symbolic meaning. As my further searches revealed precious little information, I began to take it upon myself to investigate the subject of these abstract monuments. At first it just began by visiting a few during a small vacation, but as I began to amass more information, I collected it onto a website. I immediately began to get positive feedback from this work, so I continued with even greater effort photographing, documenting and detailing the cultural and historic significance of the monuments. My work continues even now through social media, my website, my newly released book "Spomenik Monument Database", as well as collaborations with groups around the world.
What have you hoped to express about architecture through the photos you post?
I hope to communicate about the Yugoslav monuments is that during this era, a very culturally distinct and unique form of architecture and design was able to evolve that concretely delineated a Yugoslav time, place and people. In this modern 'global age' within which most of us find ourselves living, much of world's new architecture and design has begun to resemble itself, no matter where you go.
In contrast, in exploring the monuments of the former Yugoslavia, we find an ambitiously new synthesis of art, sculpture and architecture being used to create a new type of visual language to communicate a shared history, culture and heritage. As a result, I believe there is a great deal that contemporary architects and designers, as well as people as a whole, can better learn about how architecture can act as a tool to geographically and culturally demarcate who we are as defined groups of people.
Has Instagram affected the way you take photographs?
Using Instagram, I have really learned a great deal about the importance of framing and composition. Anytime an image is posting, one cannot help but put a great amount of though its how a form rests within the Instagram square, as that composition and framing greatly affect how your audience will respond to that image. As a result, my eye has become much more sensitive to how my subjects fill the frame and interact with the viewer.
Is there a photograph you have posted that you are particularly fond of?
A photo I took of the ruins of the monument at Petrova Gora in Croatia is one I am particularly happy about:
...the colors, the framing, and the mood are all things that came out incredibly successfully for this photo. Anytime I take a photo of the monuments, I do my best to communicate not only the monument itself, but also the atmosphere of the place, and with this image, I think I did that rather well.
What are your favorite profiles to follow?
Some of the favorite profiles are the following:
-Robert Conte @ilcontephotography
-Stefano Perego @stepegphotography
-Antifurniture @antifurniture
-Unbuilt Archive @unbuilt_archive
-Ukranian Soviet Mosaics @Ukranianmosaics
View this post on InstagramThis first photo in this set is from the new book "Brutal Block Postcards", put out by @fuelpublishing, which explores historical postcards of the #brutualist #concrete #architecture of the former #USSR and it's aligned states. ◾ In reference to the post I made a couple days ago related to the Bulgarian monuments which have parallels to those which are found in the former Yugoslavia... it is worth highlighting one of if not the most ambitious, imposing and visually stunning #monument projects created in #Bulgaria (and maybe all of Southeastern Europe) during their communist era, which is the Buzludzha Memorial House. This monument is on such an unbelievably immense scale that it towers over even the largest monuments built in Yugoslavia, however, it's innovative and progressive design could be likened to similarly ambitious Yugoslav monument projects built at Petrova Gora or the Makedonium at Kruševo. It was here on Buzludzha Peak (situated in the Central Balkan Mountains) that a group met in 1891 to form the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party. Construction on a massive memorial to honor this site began in 1974. Within the structure were installed a huge series of wall mosaics which told the story of Bulgaria (from the perspective of the regime). In addition, the building's accompying star tower reaches 70 meters into the sky. During it's time, the monument was a popular tourist attraction and held Communist Party meetings and events. However, after the fall of communism in Bulgaria in the early 1990s, the structure almost immediately began to fall into disrepair. Currently it sits in a state of complete devastation and #decay. Yet, there are presently talks to rehabilitate the building. . . . ◾ The monument is located east of Shipka Pass near the town of Kazanlak, Bulgaria. ◾ Completed in 1981, created by #architect Georgi Stoilov. ◾ This photo set shows both exterior and interior shots of the Memorial House during the 1980s era when it was still in operation. ◾ ---------------------------------------------------- ◾ #design #concretearchitecture #moderndesign #arthistory #architecturephotography #modernarchitecture #vintage
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Beautiful!
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