On Friday 17th January club members gathered to welcome the return of Les Forrester who would present his architecture images live on Zoom .
Les hails from the Yorkshire Dales and creates minimal long exposure photography of contemporary architecture with a light soft desaturated look .His unique methods express the essential qualities of the subjects photographed and by eliminating extraneous detail his images exude a quiet tranquil quality well suited to fine art architectural photography.
Les travels extensively and took those present on a journey starting in Gateshead along the south bank of the river Tyne .With his love of architecture both historic and contemporary and as his talk this evening was entitled Contemporary Architecture And Friends. Les explained that friends refereed to the buildings of former times.
The Baltic a former flour mill which is now a contemporary art museum on four floors with a restaurant and external viewing platform on the top floor displayed in juxtaposition with the ultra modern Sage music venue though has been renamed The Glasshouse .
Moving on a visit to Berlin in 2024 Les showcased his images from this vibrant city including The Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz and The jewish Museum by Daniel Liebskind
Les deciding to walk through the city was rewarded by the discovery of buildings that he had not scheduled to visit but could not dismiss this accidental discovery when presented .
The Danish capital Copenhagen was next where anyone familiar with Denmark will be aware of its outstanding contribution to ,modern architecture and its many practitioners from the turn of the 20thcentury to the present time. Les made mention of Arne Jacobsen an influential architect and furniture designer and among the buildings displayed was the Copenhil Energy Plant and Urban Recreation Center.
Amsterdam and Venice were revealed through the Lens of les who referred to latter as MY VENICE .Delicate images of The Grand Canal San Marco Square and the Bridge of Sighs delighted all present .
Azerbaijan was the next port of call in this tour with Les referring to this section as ZAHA HEYDAR & ME This was a visit to the Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku designed by Zaha Hadid an Iraqi -British architect and artist perhaps best known here for her design of the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games .
“Architecture should be able to excite you, to make you think” - Zaha Hadid
Les says that my normal style is that of subtle colour but on occasions a building will dictate monochrome to be more appropriate . Les highlighted a selection of outstanding monochrome .
Many thank to Les for such an outstanding and instructive evening exploring his vision and for sharing his post capture methods in Lightroom .
NEXT WEEK - Round four inter club competition judging. The theme of this round is flowers .
Edward McCavana BNDCC InformationOfficer .
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