Archives for category: Photography
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Basotho Hut, Lesotho

By Quintin Lake
July 5, 2012 //
0

Thabang and family outside their home in Ha Motenalapi in the Senqunyane valley, Lesotho, 2000

Thabang and family outside their home in Ha Motenalapi in the Senqunyane valley, Lesotho. We were camped in tents nearby on an archaeological expedition and they invited us to sleep in this hut for three nights even though this meant the whole family slept in a smaller hut out of frame. They are wearing their Basotho tribal blankets. The door and window mouldings demonstrate Litema, the mural art of the Basotho. The hut floor and window mouldings are made from Daga, a mix of earth and dung. The high ammonia content of the dung acts as an antiseptic. The patterns engraved around the doorways may represent the surrounding furrowed fields.

Signed gallery prints available here >>

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Categories Architectural Photography, Documentary Photography, Expedition Photography, Photography, Travel Photography

Vanishing Shanghai – Print Series

By Quintin Lake
July 5, 2012 //
4

Vanishing Shanghai I. An area of Hutongs or traditional low-rise housing sits between already demolished housing and new high rise developments behind. 2007

Vanishing Shanghai II. The writing on the wall reads, “Overusage of Electricity Prohibited”. 2007

Vanishing Shanghai III. Path through the rubble of demolished houses that are still inhabited before the construction of new buildings. 2007

Vanishing Shanghai IV. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower is viable in the distance. 2007

I visited Shanghai in 2007 and the city was metamorphosing at breakneck speed perhaps due to the Shanghai Expo and the the Beijing Olympics of 2008. One area of the city that caught my imagination in particular was where the the traditional low houses known as Hutongs were being torn down to make way for the modern high rises. In between the new and the demolished buildings people lived amongst the rubble, the sides of their houses ripped open as if in the aftermath of shelling. As well as this melancholy contrast I tried to capture the strange emptiness and theatricality of this temporary part of the city.

Signed gallery prints available here >>

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Categories Architectural Photography, Documentary Photography, Fine Art Photography, Photography, Travel Photography

Klee comes to Oxford: New Biochemistry Building by Hawkins Brown

By Quintin Lake
July 3, 2012 //
7

Oxford University Biochemistry Building at dusk, Oxford, UK. Architects: Hawkins Brown, Built 2008

Coloured glass fins of Oxford University Biochemistry Building in evening light

Abstract detail of the Coloured glass fins of Oxford University Biochemistry Building

Coloured glass fins set against the sky

Fire in the Evening, Paul Klee, Oil on board, 1929

Coloured glass fins of the New Oxford University Biochemistry Building, by Hawkins Brown frame views in and out of the building, creating complex and subtle patterns of colour as the light changes. According to the architects the fins reflect the rich red, terracotta, orange, brown and purple of the nearby buildings though to me they have a refreshingly assertive identity of their own.

The final combination and rhythm of colours was influenced by the Bauhaus artist Paul Klee’s theories as can be seen by looking at his works such as “Fire in the Evening” (above). This sophisticated use of colour in architecture won the building the WAN Colour in Architecture award in 2011. For another stunning use of coloured glass in architecture see my photographs of “My Rainbow Horizon” in Denmark

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All images available as prints or for publication / licensing contact me for pricing. 

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Categories Architectural Photography, Delight, Documentary Photography, Photography

Ice house or Yakhchal, Iran

By Quintin Lake
June 17, 2012 //
2

Exterior of Ice house or Yakhchal, Abarqu, Iran

Brick interior of Yakhchal

An ice house or Yakhchal is an ancient refrigerator allowing the storage of ice in the desert in summer. It was collected in winter and kept cool by its shape and walls made from special mortar called srooj, composed of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash, which was resistant to heat transfer. Abarqu, Iran, 2008

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Categories Architectural Photography, Documentary Photography, Photography

Photos: Rococo Chocolates Shop, Chester

By Quintin Lake
April 3, 2012 //
0

Eastgate Clock & the new Rococo Chocolates Shop, a part of the Chester Grosvenor Hotel.

Shop interior showing model train track hanging from the ceiling.

Interior showing bright colour scheme, model train and cocoa bean window display

An architectural and interiors photography assignment for Mark Prizeman Architect and Rococo Chocolates to document their new shop in Chester.

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All images available for publication / licensing contact me for pricing. 

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Categories Architectural Photography, Assignments, Documentary Photography, Photography

Palmyra, Syria: Architectural Photography

By Quintin Lake
December 15, 2011 //
3

Overview of Palmyra at sunset showing the Great Colonnade running from the Funerary Temple in the foreground to the Temple of Bel at rear. Photo: Quintin Lake

Monumental Arch, the entrance to the city, Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Great Colonnade, Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Columns of the Great Colonnade in front of the Valley of the Tombs, Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Arch of the Great Colonnade at sunset, Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Tetrapylon, placed at a crossroads, Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Theatre, Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Stone seats and steps in the theatre at Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

A commanding view of Palmyra seen from the Temple of the Standards in Diocletian's Camp (said to be the location of the Palace of Zenobia) Photo: Quintin Lake

Funerary Temple at Diocletian's Camp. Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Temple of Baal Shamin. Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Temple of Baal Shamin Interior. Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Cella or Inner Temple of the Temple of Bel, Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Towers of Yemliko, Valley of the Tombs, Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Tower of Elahbel, burial tower, Palmyra, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

Burial Chambers inside Tower of Elahbel, burial tower, Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Muslim Castle, Palmyra (Qala'at ibn Maan or Fakhr-al-Din al-Maani Castle), built by the Mamluks in the 13th century. The castle overlooks Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Valley of the Tombs at sunset, Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

Roadside poster of Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, February 2011 depicted with the ruins of Palmyra. Photo: Quintin Lake

An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences.

It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert. The earliest documented reference to the city by its Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur (which means “the town that repels” in Amorite and “the indomitable town” in Aramai is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.

Palmyra became the capital of the short-lived Palmyrene Empire (260–273) which was a splinter empire, that broke off of the Roman Empire during the the Third Century. It encompassed the Roman provinces of Syria Palaestina, Egypt and large parts of Asia Minor. The Palmyrene Empire was ruled by Queen Zenobia.

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All images available as fine art prints or for publication / licensing contact me for pricing and to arrange use. Photographs © Quintin Lake  

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Categories Architectural Photography, Delight, Documentary Photography, Photography, Travel Photography

Photos: Ceausescu’s Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest

By Quintin Lake
December 12, 2011 //
1

Sensitivity to context is neatly sidestepped by razing the 30,000 homes, churches & synagogues - an area of the old city the size of Venice - which once stood here. Front Facade. The Palace of the Parliament (Also known as Ceausescu'€™s Palace or House of The People) in Bucharest, Romania. Built 1983-1989. Architect: Anca Petrescu

Unirii Hall, the largest of the 1,100 rooms in the entire building. Available for wedding hire should you wish to entertain 2,000 guests or enact a megalomaniac fantasy. Photo: Quintin Lake

I. I. C. Bratianu Hall. The building is so out of scale to the human body that it feels uncomfortable to walk about - as if one has been shrunk. Photo: Quintin Lake

This room was intended as Nicolae Ceauşescu's office with direct access to the balcony, now Al. I. Cuza Hall. The blank space at the end of the room was originally intended for a painting of the modest fellow - perfectly positioned to be admired by his number one fan. Photo: Quintin Lake

Currently entitled the Human Rights Hall, it seems droll that the round table - symbol of democracy should be housed in such totalitarian architecture. The room hosted the 20th Nato summit and other EU conferences. Photo: Quintin Lake

The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania designed by architect Anca Petrescu for Nicolae Ceauşescu is today a multi-purpose building that contains both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world’s largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and the heaviest building.

Entire neighborhoods were destroyed to make way for the building, equating to an area the size of Venice. Among that which has been lost are churches, synagogues, valuable historic constructions and 40.000 people were forced to move. Most of them, to newly constructed communist blocks of flats of a poor quality in the city.

At the time of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s 1989 overthrow and execution, the building structure and design were complete. With supreme irony he never had the chance to occupy the monster he created. Subsequently, many of the furnishings were never installed (mostly evident because of the many large, empty spaces throughout the palace), while the last three basement levels and a large clock tower (that would display the official Romanian time) were never finished. During the regime change, the new leaders of Romania referred to the building as the House of Ceauşescu, to highlight the excessive luxury in which Ceauşescu would have lived, in stark contrast to the squalor and poverty endured by many people living in the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Everything about the building is supersized: Petrescu led a team of 700 architects to build the project. In the ’80s 20,000 men worked in shifts for 24 hours a day. The building contains 1,100 rooms. Today the building has a symbolic ambiguity, after so many Romanian people laboured over it’s construction it is hardly surprising it was not demolished. Like it or not, the portentous building over which so much was lost and so many suffered has become the architectural symbol of Bucharest.

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All images available as fine art prints or for publication / licensing contact me for pricing and to arrange use. Photographs © Quintin Lake  

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Categories Architectural Photography, Documentary Photography, Photography, Travel Photography

Photos: Khan As’ad Pasha, Damascus

By Quintin Lake
November 25, 2011 //
0

Courtyard of Khan As'ad Pasha Damascus, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

The khan or Caravanserai of As’ad Pasha al-Azem is situated along Suq al-Buzuriyyah in the old city of Damascus. It was built between 1751 and 1752 by the city governor As’ad Pasha al-Azem. It is one the most prominent khans of the old city, and covers an area of 2500 square meters.

The building follows a typical khan layout with two floors giving onto a central courtyard. The Khan is entered from Suq al-Buzuriyyah, through a monumental gateway lavishly decorated with stone carvings and roofed by a muqarnas semi-dome. The entrance leads to a square courtyard with shops on the ground floor, used for commerce and storage. The second floor, accessible by a staircase located to the right of the main entrance was used mainly for loadging, and has eighty rooms arranged along a gallery facing the courtyard.

Looking up to the domes of Khan As'ad, Damascus, Syria. Photo: Quintin Lake

The space of the courtyard is divided into nine equal square modules, where each module is covered with a dome raised on a drum pierced with twenty windows. The domes are supported by pendentives that transfer the load onto four piers and to the courtyard walls. An octagonal marble fountain occupies the center of the courtyard below the central dome. Each of the four courtyard walls has three doorways on the ground floor, flanked by two rectangular windows. The symmetry is maintained on the second floor where each gallery façade has three archways flanked by two smaller ones. The khan is built of alternating courses of basalt and limestone.

Three of the courtyard domes were destroyed in an earthquake seven years after the khan’s completion. The openings were covered with wooden planks until 1990 when the khan was restored and the domes rebuilt. No longer used for commerce at the beginning of the twentieth century, the khan was used for manufacture and storage until it was restored in 1990 winning the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

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All images available as fine art prints or for publication / licensing contact me for pricing and to arrange use. Photographs © Quintin Lake  

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Categories Architectural Photography, Delight, Photography, Travel Photography
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