Photography: Mies van der Rohe and the Poetry of Purpose

LIFE republishes a series of photographs by photographer Frank Scherschel from a feature that ran in the March 1, 1957 issue of LIFE, at the same time that the architect’s signature achievement — the 38-story Seagram Building on Park Avenue in New York — was nearing completion.

Titled “Emergence of a Master Architect,” the LIFE article made clear from the outset that until the mid-1950s, “Mies was renowned chiefly among fellow architects and his revolutionary ideas were known chiefly through models, a few buildings in Europe and the work of disciples.

Emergence of a Master Architect, Photography by Frank Scherschel, for LIFE

Photography: The Yellow River by Zhang Kechun

The Yellow River Surging Northward Rumblingly
Regarding it as a song. perhaps. has become a popular joke for a long time. Regarding it as a mother. or a root. probably ends by banishing such memory or cutting oft that relationship. We play and chase all day long in the powerful torrent of modernization. Yet the winding river has possibly been put out of our minds. There is no more gaze on it with quite and peace. even a second.
It is a river, with its unity of bend and straight, fullness and imperfection, rapid and slow. active or tranquil. majestic and elegant. simple and wonderful. bright and dark. light and color. form and spirit. visionary and real. Moreover, it also embraces people’s reality and fate, joy and sorrow, firmness and leisure. Then I determined to go and follow its pace, with all my courage and my only presentable equipment the large format camera. That’s the connotation and solemnness I can give. I know that it is improper for a photographer to make comments on mountains and rivers. It is a kind of bad manner to growl and to make a bowl pledge or a complaint on its plentiful history and such a constant exist. Now. it’s time for me to wake up my silent soul to quietly keep watch on it for the season. stare at it through this journey. have a cup of wine with it and sing a song. and sleep beside it.
Who will keep watch on whom? Who will flow with whom? As being alive. we all go by with time. But we are still here. and we may have a better consideration on the luture alter having a look at the past and present with heart.
In such a noisy world. only a lresh and simple song might possibly match with it original noble color. its past and present. and be well worthy of its drilting from place to place…

The Yellow River, by Zhang Kechun

Photography: Centro Niemeyer by Danica Ocvirk Kus

Centro Niemeyer is a new cultural complex in Avilés, and is part of an ambitious scheme to redevelop the riverfront. Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, designed the complex as a gift to the principality.

Centro Niemeyer, Avilés, Spain, by Oscar Niemeyer, Photography © Danica Ocvirk Kus

Photography: Tokyo Architecture Stéphane Laniray

A renowned photographer in the fashion industry, Stéphane Laniray travels to Tokyo twice a year. Stuck for long hours in his hotel room, waiting for the next runway event to be shot, the French artist decided to stave off boredom in going out and taking pictures of the city. The Tokyo Architecture series resulted of his wanderings around town. Private dwellings, government buildings and offices, public lighting or factories attracted the eye of Laniray, particulary fond of architecture, and a great admirer of Mies van der Rohe’s achievements.

Tokyo is stripped bare of any explicit representation (crowded and extremely lively, but also suffocatingly hot at the time the series was shot). Each image is multiplied, distorted into a renewed evocation, unleashing imagination. Far from cliché representations of Tokyo, Laniray’s quest for urban poetry reveals the raw beauty of a wall covered in graffiti, and turns a glass building into a finely shaped diamond. In most of the photographs, human beings are nowhere to be seen; a line of trees or tangled electric wires design a whole new urban story. Focused on actual details, the artist depicts a fantasied rendering of Japan’s capital city. Stéphane Laniray, whose pictures can regularly be seen in prominent Interior decorating magazines, owns and runs the Anorak Gallery in Paris.

Elodie Palasse-Leroux
(Journalist Elodie Palasse-Leroux is the founder and editor of Sleek design)

Tokyo Architecture, by Stéphane Laniray

Photography: Yurikamome by Appuru Pai

Long exposure shots from the New Transit Yurikamome, an automated guideway train that connects Odaiba to the mainland, passing through the Rainbow Bridge.

Yurikamome tracks, Tokyo, Japan, by Appuru Pai

Exhibition: Hélène Binet: Architecture Photographs

For the last twenty years, Swiss artist Hélène Binet has captured the works of contemporary architects including: David Chipperfield, Coop Himmelblau, Daniel Libeskind, Sauerbruch Hutton and Peter Zumthor. In the language of photography Binet reflects her own notion and interpretation of the building, resulting in her work separating itself from pure documentation to a work of art. through her imagery, she lets light and shade take effect, seizes walls and openings, corners and curves, to express through the use of her camera, her personal point of view.

This exhibition at Gabrielle Ammann /Gallery presents a selection of Hélène Binet’s works from 1999 to 2011: ‘lfone’ (Zaha hHadid) from 1999, Le Monastère de Sainte-Marie de la Tourette’ (Le Corbusier) from 2007, as well as her landscape images entitled ‘Formations’. the ‘Kolumba 01′ (Peter Zumthor) a work from 2007, will be on the cover of the upcoming monograph ‘hélène binet: composing space, the photographs of Hélène Binet’, published by Phaidon in a limited edition. On the occasion of this exhibition, the gallery is proud to present, worldwide for the first time, ‘Vardø’, June 2011 (Steilneset, memorial for the victims of the witch trials in Vardø, Finnmark) built by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

Architecture Photographs by Hélène Binet, at Gabrielle Ammann /Gallery, Cologne, Germany, September 09 – October 28

Bricks by Ana Dominguez and Omar Sosa

Bricks by Ana Dominguez and Omar Sosa. Photography by Nacho Alegre
via: The Fox is Black

Photography: Centro Niemeyer by Inigo Bujedo Aguirre

Centro Niemeyer is a new cultural complex in Avilés, and is part of an ambitious scheme to redevelop the riverfront. Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, designed the complex as a gift to the principality.

Centro Niemeyer, Avilés, Spain, by Oscar Niemeyer, Photography by © Inigo Bujedo Aguirre

Photography: Welcome to Pyongyang by Charlie Crane

“Although not commonly thought of as a holiday destination all these photographs have been taken at tourist sites throughout the city. It took over a year to get permission to go in with my camera and nothing quite prepares you for what awaits. I was not allowed to take my mobile phone past customs and was met by two guides who were to accompany me at all times throughout my trip. At first they appeared robotic in conversation as if reading from a script, telling of their country’s great achievements. After a few days and many polaroids the guides became more relaxed and personable.”
– Charlie Crane

Welcome to Pyongyang, by Charlie Crane, Produced in conjunction with Nicholas Bonner of Koryo Tours, Published by Chris Boot.
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Photography: Icelandic Volcanoes by Marcel Musil

Icelandic Volcanoes, by Marcel Musil