Atmosphere
what is it and how can I represent it in photographs?
As a photographer of architecture and light I am interested in atmosphere - what is it and how can I represent it in photographs?
Atmosphere has to do with our experience of spaces and places, our physical presence and the effect it has on us. So whilst images show what something looks like, I also aim to convey what it feels like.
Atmosphere is an embodied experience, so through images it has to be evoked, memories triggered and emotions unlocked. Quality of light is the key element.
“I don’t understand light. It gives me the feeling that there is something beyond me, something beyond all understanding. And I am very glad, very grateful that there is such a thing.”
- Peter Zumthor
“Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not just in the eye. It is in the mind. It is our positive response to life.”
- Agnes Martin
“I enter a room and - in a fraction of a second - have this feeling about it.”
- Peter Zumthor
“Whosoever thinks of architecture initially always thinks of the elements of the building, the facades, the columns, the ornaments, & yet all of that is of second rank. What is to most effect is not the shape but its inversion, the space, the emptiness that spreads out rhythmically between the walls, is delimited by them, & that vibrancy is more important than the walls.”
- August Endell
“Architectural images are usually expected to seek clarity rather than ephemerality & obscurity, a finiteness rather than open-mindedness & deliberate vagueness.”
- Juhani Pallasma
“The feelings aroused by qualities of light are difficult to speak about clearly, for light has no intellectual meaning even though it touched the depths of our being in every way.”
- Henry Plummer