Inspired by the Pop Art architectural posters developed during the 1950s to the 1970s, this project aims to present architectural photography in the style of Pop Art architectural posters. Pop Art, which reached its peak in the 1960s, is usually known for its bright and vivid colours, and its poster style is often characterised by a simple printmaking style. When observing Pop Art architectural posters, these posters often have characteristics such as large areas of unobstructed sky, buildings with three-dimensional geometric line aesthetics, and light contrast between light and dark. The buildings in the Pop Art era have gradually begun to take on the early buildings in the Modernism era, and the lines have gradually become simple yet fashionable.
Therefore, in the process of creating this photography project, the first thing I thought of was to use a building with similar characteristics as the centre-piece of the photograph over a clean and unobstructed sky, so that the entire composition can become sharp and concise. I first chose the architectural photographs I had previously taken as the subject and used them to create a prototype of the project. At the same time, this prototype helped me reflect and analyse the details of this project and inspired me to the next step of photographing the buildings I want.
When I re-examined the prototype of my project, I found that the idea of simplicity conveyed by the work was similar to the concept of minimalism, hence, I boldly tried to incorporate the idea of minimalism and artistic expression into the project. The core concept of minimalism is “less is more”, thus I bravely deleted many parts of the photograph to leave the main body of the building and the sky. However, a single tone in the sky may make the image look disharmonious and lacklustre. In order to solve this problem, I stopped and started looking at the sky, hoping to get inspiration.
On a certain sleepless night, I stood up until the dawn of the morning sunrise, and fortunately, the sky that day was clean and clear without the presence of any clouds. I was inspired by the gradient colours of the lively morning sky, and I was inspired to introduce gradient colours into the project’s sky.
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After going through a series of creations, I suddenly remembered that Pop Art uses bright and lively colours. So I asked myself “Can this feature be incorporated into this photography project that draws elements from the Pop Art architectural poster style?”. I tried to use some bright and surreal colours for the colour of the sky and at the same time, I tried to make the colours of the buildings in the picture appear lively and surreal. For example, I specifically chose buildings with bright colours as the centre-piece or developed the colours of the building to appear bright. During the creation process, I tried to copy and rearrange the main body of the building so that the new copy could form a structural balance with the original elements, making the picture look more intriguing.
When I started being proud of my project work, the blue buildings were like waves, and the red sky was like the red sun setting upon the sea. It is reminiscent of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, which fascinate people with their beautiful colour palettes and line outlines.
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This project’s attempt to choose simple buildings was successful, so along with it a new question appeared in my mind “Is it possible to choose buildings with complex or traditional aesthetics as the theme?”. One day during my creation process, I accidentally came across some folk fairy tales, which inspired me to create a work that has the sensation of a fairy tale or a castle.
Photographer: Benjamin J. Cheng