Architecture

       Coming back to school from winter break, we were loaded with three assignments due in quick succession. First, microphotography. Second, the first installment of our personal project. Third, architecture and landscape. Going into this, I didn’t really have an idea of what constituted as ‘architecture’, because all the collections of professional architectural photographs I’d seen were so different from one another. In addition, I was pretty sure I wanted to do architecture for my personal project, so I knew I had to get used to taking these kind of pictures quickly. 

       I went out on a Saturday morning with my father to take pictures. We went first to the Royal Chulan hotel, which is near my house. I quickly realized that I wasn’t getting the kind of pictures I wanted there, so we took the second roll of film to some old, abandoned buildings near the KL Tower. The buildings were old and dilapidated, and overrun by trees and plants on the insides. However, they were being cleared out by a construction crew, which created some interesting photographs. In one house, there were walls covered in graffiti, which also created interest. Compared to my first roll of film, I was very happy with many of the photographs I finished with. 

       The biggest challenge when printing these pictures was bringing out the details in the shadows. One photograph had a massive and nearly black shadow on it. Really by accident, I dodged the shadow, and ended up with quite a bit of detail brought out, but luckily without it being unnatural looking. Another picture had two dark windows. After dodging them a little bit, some detail was brought out. However, had I dodged them more, they would have looked grey and unnatural.