The Bilbao Experience 2

Photos by Robin Hill (c)

I once heard Sting say that he will never forget the first time he heard his own song 'Roxanne' on the radio...and that it was an experience unlike any other. I can't say I felt the same way the first time one of my photos was shown in a gallery, but this time here at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, I did feel connected to my work and there was a sense of professional pride at seeing my photos projected on the walls of the museum at a nice size of about six feet by four feet. The show feels completely different here in Spain....the spatial arrangement of the galleries are not continuous and one has to visit several different rooms to see the whole show, whereas in New York, one could simply traverse down the ramp, pop into the adjunct galleries, come out again and continue the descent...a purely joyful experience. Here at Gehry's Gugg...the ceiling's are really high...too high...creating an acoustical conundrum and spatial handicap...but the show does bring together the wide range of Wright's work and presents it in such a way that one is drawn into Wright's world.

The Bilbao Experience

October 22nd 2009...Bilbao, Spain. Frank Gehry's masterpiece is a profoundly unnerving experience that I'm still trying to process....there's no doubt its absolutely brilliant and is a work of Genius, but like many works of Genius...its got its issues...and not being given to sycophancy there are a couple of things that drive me crazy...but I'll get to those later. Firstly its clearly apparent to me that the Architect seriously 'Let go' of any previous notions in Architecture with both this building and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is its spiritual sister. It is without doubt a paradigm shifter...there's Architecture before the Guggenheim Bilbao and there's everything after...Gehry is clutching onto soaring ladders, making a leap into the infinite and risking everything...and the result is breathtaking and heart rending and full of delight. The photo above was made a few hours ago...the light had been shifting all day and by the time dusk came around the clouds rolled in supplying the photo with a dramatic ceiling and giving movemet to the building which was already in full flow. Dynamite! In fact 'dynamic' is the one word I would choose above all others to describe this building, this sculpture, this poem of structure, this delicious concoction of outer planetary imagination. Strange that I could also use those words to describe the other Frank's masterpiece, the Guggenheim in New York, but the feeling there is completely different....The Guggenheim in New York has a deeply mystical transcendant quality to it... a reflection of the Architect's philosophy...the Guggenheim in Bilbao feels sensual almost in a sexual way, like an explosive orgasm that's ripe and fecund and life affirming...can't say if that particular quality is a reflection of Gehry's philosophy, but there is this enormous feeling of just letting go of all previous thought...the details such as the processional steps being exactly the wrong distance apart for graceful descent and ascent can be brushed aside by the sheer magic of the place...its totally self referential...but in a really good way...and having said that...even though the building brings a lot of attention to itself...it still knits in well with the rest of the urban environment...the curvature of the River Nevion is repeated in the curvature of the front of the building and the Puente de la Salve Bridge serves as a serious backbone to the whole composition without distracting the Architecture. Processional steps to the north and south serve to connect the rest of the streetscape to the museum and one can see in the 'Bilbao effect' in full force in the surrounding area, which has and still is enjoying an urban renaissance. This aspect of the building really sold me, because I was not expecting a self referential building to blend in with the rest of the urban drama.

University of Miami School of Architecture show: Frank lloyd Wright's Florida Southern College

The University of Miami School of Architecture hosted my show of Frank Lloyd Wright's Florida Southern College and runs through October 11th. This is the second stop for this particular show, the first being at Charles Cowles Gallery in New York over the summer and other photos from the series being included in the vast Frank Lloyd Wright: From within outward show both at the Guggenheim in New York and upcoming on October 22nd, the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

The Gallery and adjacent lecture hall were designed by Architect Leon Krier and make for a very functional dual purpose facility. The lecture hall next door was a delight to give a lecture in and it was great to have the exhibition reception immediately after in the gallery. The photos are 30 X 40 and were sponsored by the world monuments fund who placed Florida Southern College on their 2008 watch list. The show asks the question...if we lose our cultural heritage, where do we find our bearings? Preserving fine Architecture from the past enables us to clearly see where we have been and points the direction forward. Wright's philosophy of Organic Architecture has never been so prescient as it is now and his fusion of Nature and Architecture are powerful forces that can shape the world to come in a very positive and healthy environmental direction.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Florida Southern College Exhibition at University of Miami

Photography by Robin Hill (c)

Photo above shows Frank Lloyd Wright's Pfeiffer Chapel (1938-41) on the left and its smaller cousin The Danforth Chapel (1955) on the right. This photo will be included in the upcoming lecture I'm giving on Wednesday night, September 30th at the University of Miami school of Architecture. Free and open to the public, there will also be an exhibition of 16 large format photos in the gallery next door and a reception afterwards...The exhibition intends to focus attention upon the urgent need for renovation and restoration of the

largest group of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in one location at Florida Southern College, Lakeland Florida. The college has made significant steps toward campus renovation with the restoration of Wright's iconic waterdome...see photo below.

Photography by Robin Hill (c)

Photographing Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim

Photography by Robin Hill (c)

Give ten photographers the same assignment and they all come back with something different...sometimes it hard to photograph an Icon such as the Guggenheim because one has a tendency to think that its all been done before...however, I'm of the opinion that Architecture is new every day and is affected by weather, people, seasons and how one views it. The late, great Choreographer Merce Cunningham saw Dance in this way and always managed to find something new every day, even though he had done the same task many times before. Its this attitude I try to bring to my photography, especially when the greats of my profession have already cemented the 'standard iconic photo'...think Ezra Stoller's photo of the Guggenheim for instance and its the classic view looking up at the spiralling vortex of the interior. I've shot that view too, but last time I was in New York I was fortunate enough to have some of my photos featured in the Frank Lloyd Wight exhibit and I got to spend a lot of time circumnavigating Wright's masterpiece and on my way out of the ground floor lecture room I looked up and saw this view above, which I hadn't seen before. Not your typical Architectural photo, and one that pays attention to circular geometry and sculpture as opposed to form and function. Now underneath is something a bit more typical...showing streetlife, the Charles Gwathmey (R.I.P) addition and the view toward midtown showing the Empire State Building...deliberately taken as a quick street photo, this engages the viewer into the context of the Urban Environment in a realistic manner that is not posed, set up or art directed in any way. One would certainly not park a black SUV in front of the building if one was trying to shoot the perfect Architectural Photo....but that's not what this is about...its literally a snapshot of streetlife and how people interact with Architecture without artifice. Both photos I thnk have value but for differe=nt reasons. One is aesthetic and the other tells a story...in order to understand a work of Architecture I believe one needs a both...a series of photos that point out both the Geometric sensibilities, the flow of space and the context of the Architecture within the urban environment.

When Morris went Mies

The Crystal House. Architect Morris Lapidus 1960 Photography by Robin Hill (c)

Morris Lapidus, the famed Miami Beach Architect was well known for his woggles, beanpoles and cheeseholes. He was the opposite of Mies Van der Rohe and even titled his autobiography 'Too much is never enough' as a critique to Mies's famous 'less is more' line. Morris's wild imagination, and eclectic creativity held him outside the reigning paradigm in Architecture when he designed the fontainebleau hotel in 1954. Derided by critics as 'schlock architecture', Morris spent much of the rest of his career designing brilliant buildings that were despised by many of his peers. Still, Morris kept on designing and kept on creating, eventually finding himself as the poster child for a new kind of Architecture that celebrated 'out of the box' thinking. Still Morris himself was a sometime pragmatist and the photo above gives the living proof. At first glance one could take a look at the Crystal House and see a widened north shore apartment building evoking Mies Van Der Rohe's famous rectangular masterpieces in Chicago...and indeed the building is square and very much a box. Still, on closer inpection, one can see Morris's flair on either side of the Porte Corchere there are his famous cheese holes and the porte corchere itself certainly holds no similarity to Mies's elegant and simple open box porte corchere's. Its a building with a strong sense of contradiction, fine scaling and detailed mid century modern architectural manouevres that only Lapidus could have conjured up. The building loves to be photographed dead on in strong afternoon sunlight and black and white renders the whole thing a somewhat 'iconic' air.

Tracy and Alonso Mourning Senior High School by Arquitectonica

This brand new high school in Miami Dade County finds Arquitectonica in top form. The facade is a repeating geometric pattern that is striking and sculptural, making itself a perfect candidate for a black and white photograph.