Mass Collective Co-Founder Francesco Russo Caught The London Mastaba Before It Was Gone | APAlmanac
This week’s featured project comes to us from the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London. In the summer of 2018, The London Mastaba — created by famed Christo and Jeanne-Claude — made its debut to parkgoers as part of the Serpentine Galleries, then disappeared 3 months later. Architectural photographer and Mass Collective cofounder Francesco Russo who splits his time between London and Venice made some beautiful photographs of this installation and sent them our way after the unfortunate passing of Christo early this summer. What a year 2020 is shaping up to be!
“The Mastaba was under construction at the same time as the Serpentine Pavilion 2018 by Frida Escobedo where I was working on-site documenting the construction phase over the month of May, so I had the chance to be around there quite a lot. I went to photograph the Mastaba a few days after its opening in July. It was one early morning at about 4:30 a.m. – yes, we get very early morning lights in summer in London – because Hyde Park is usually very crowded and I wanted the images to focus on the impact of the structure on the urban landscape of London. I usually like to show the relationship between architecture and people, but in this case, since Christo’s work is all about twisting the perception of the spaces that we’re used to seeing in their usual shape, I preferred to approach the project this way.”
“I also wanted to capture the early morning light to be able to use long exposures and have the effect of the smooth water surface. The Lake has not exactly the clearest water and wanted to improve the aesthetic of the images through this easy old trick. I actually thought it would have been easy, but it was not at all. I didn’t consider the fact that the Mastaba is a floating structure and it hence moves with water. This twists many of the habits of architectural photographers that really on having a still subject to photograph. Therefore the main challenge has then been finding the right combination of settings and the use of ND filters to have both the silky water effect and freeze the movement of the floating structure at the same time.”
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Source: Mass Collective Co-Founder Francesco Russo Caught The London Mastaba Before It Was Gone | APAlmanac