We come across a variety of buildings and structures on a daily basis. They can be anything – an under-construction skyscraper, a broken-down school building, a church, or even an old pub. Most of us generally don’t give a second glance to these buildings. Why would you, right?
Perhaps, if you could see some of these buildings from someone else’s perspective, you would appreciate the beauty in them. The Art of Building photography competition is one such platform that attempts to showcase the very best digital photography of the built environment from the world over. Here, we have selected some of the best photographs from more than ten years of the competition. They should hopefully help you appreciate the hidden beauty in the simplest of structures
1. ‘Fish’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Pedro Luis Ajuriaguerra Saiz
Photographer’s Comments: “Due to the reflection of the water at night, the architecture of the buildings shows us the figure of a fish, perhaps prehistoric with its heart still alive.”
2. ‘Colourful Mixture’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Volker Sander
Photographer’s Comments: “This picture shows the peaceful coexistence of old and new architecture. The buildings don’t fit together, but they are not fighting against each other. They show the creative development in the City centre.”
3. ‘Sunset above the skyscraper’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Mikhail Proskalov
Photographer’s Comments: “There’s a man at the top of the tallest skyscraper in Europe. It is very romantic to see such a beautiful sunset from that place.”
4. ‘Hope Hole’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Rasol Bayati
Photographer’s Comments: “This photo belongs to an ancient art ceiling in the carpet market.”
5. ‘Eye of the Tower’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Mehmet Yasa
Photographer’s Comments: “The staircase and the bell look like an eye. Architecture can fascinate us in many ways.”
6. ‘Abandoned School Fresno’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Robert Cassway
Photographer’s Comments: “This photo shows the ravages of time and weather on a building that was left to decay by benign neglect after the families that lived in Fresno moved away. It is part of a larger series of photographs titled ‘The Vanishing West’.”
7. ‘Flatiron Building in the Snowstorm’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Michele Palazzo
Photographer’s Comments: “New York City’s iconic Flatiron building emerges from the blizzard like the bow of a giant ship plowing through the wind and the snow. Taken during the historic coastal storm “Jonas” on January 23rd, 2016 the photograph went viral during the aftermath of the storm.”
8. ‘The Daredevil’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Ata Adnan
Photographer’s Comments: “An example of the interaction between humans and architecture.”
9. ‘Watchful’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Derek Snee
Photographer’s Comments: “A small ‘pillbox’ – hastily built when Nazi invasion threatened. Today, this stalwart sentinel depends upon the embrace of the dunes of Embleton Bay for protection from the ravages of North Sea storms.”
10. ‘Multiexpo Potsdam#5’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Frank Machalowski
Photographer’s Comments: “This multi-exposure picture reduces the building to its core without any irrelevant background. It emphasizes the building.”
11. ‘Near to fire for bricks’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Rajaram
Photographer’s Comments: “The people are working near a hot fire to burn the bricks. To make a single brick is not as easy as we think.”
12. ‘Kiss’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Zoltán Balogh
Photographer’s Comments: “Women cross the street in front of one of the most famous pub ruins of Budapest. The VIIth district of Budapest is famous from these pubs which are located in old houses of the downtown of Budapest.”
13. ‘In the brick kiln’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Phuc Ngo
Photographer’s Comments: “The brick is used in building. Brick architecture is unique.”
14. ‘The last tower’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Zoltán Balogh
Photographer’s Comments: “The old boat loader building next to the bank of the river Danube looks like a remnant of a forgotten civilization.”
15. ‘Elements’
Image source: Art of Building
Photographer: Jim Dunn
Photographer’s Comments: “A colleague of mine alerted me to the CIOB Art of Building competition which he had seen details of in a magazine. The image I submitted was taken about a year ago during the construction of the Riverside Museum in Glasgow which will open in Spring 2011. It has been designed by Zaha Hadid architects. For the past few years, I have been documenting the construction of the building which is being constructed on the site of an old dockyard. Every couple of months I go down to the site and photograph the next stage – as you can probably imagine I have hundreds of images. I used a new plug-in for Photoshop CS4 – ‘merge to HDR’ to heighten the sense of drama in the image.”
