After a fantastic workshop in Paris, I headed to Barcelona for a few days.  The main reason was to attend the Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography where I was having some of my work exhibited after winning in the Architecture category the last two years 🙂 And what a great excuse to visit a new city & country!
Those of you familiar with architecture are likely aware of Gaudí. A very prominent Spanish architect with a style all his own. Part of the Modernist movement, specifically Catalan Modernism, his work is influenced by organic forms and includes ceramics, stained glass, wrought iron, and carpentry. Nothing about his work feels minimalistic or clean, there always seems to be so much going on. We’ll start in Casa Batlló.
Once again I failed to get that wide shot for context, so if you’d like to see what Casa Batlló look like from a wider perspective, head over here. One day I’ll get this through my head. Anyhow, onto what I did shoot. This is an insanely busy tourist stop. In fact, this whole city feels like it’s swarming with tourists like I’ve never experienced anywhere. Definitely made it difficult to get shots without people in them. Shortly after entering you head up your first staircase. Here you see the ceiling detail.

Once up the stairs, there’s this curvy railing.

Walking to the neighboring room is this amazing ceiling. As you can see I spent a lot of time here, and this is just a small sample of what I shot! There’s such movement in this area. The light feels like a sea urchin or something, but with tentacles.  Or I’m imagining things, lol.




The house is filled with ceramics and colorful tile. Here I shot through this distorted glass to get this warpy feeling of the walls of the courtyard.

Locals call this Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), which you can really get a sense of in the next few shots. This also reminded me a lot of another Spanish architect quite well known today, Santiago Calatrava. No idea if he was influenced by Gaudí’s work but there’s a bone-like feeling to the designs of both men.



This one, in particular, feels like a shot I could have made of a Calatrava design. Much of the Oculus in NYC feels like this.

 
Another Gaudí stop was Park Güell, once again no wider shots, so here you go for context. In this first shot is a section of the “house” at the main entrance. Feels like a gingerbread house, don’t you think?

Up a set of stairs is this canopy area. I loved the wavy motion of the ceiling.

Once at the top is an overlook with these curvy benches.

While I didn’t take any wider shots with my “real” camera, here are a couple iPhone shots for context. First, the view as you walk up the stairs (omg the tourists!).

Then, the view from the top. Not too bad, huh?

There is much more Gaudí architecture in Barcelona with Sagrada Familia being the most famous, there will be a post soon with that truly spectacular location.
If you want to see everything I shot in Barcelona, enjoy this large album!