Brutalism

Brutalism

Flourished from the 1950's to the mid 1970's, from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century

The term originated from the fFrench word for "Raw"

Brutalist buildings are usually formed with repeated modular elements

Belgrade, Serbia 

Habitat 67

Photographs of brutalist architecture display some of the following characteristics:

• Low angles
• Leading lines
• Symemety and using the rule of thirds
• Deep depth of field

Photographs of brutalist architecture connote some of the following:

• Lack of empathy
• Working class culture 
• Bleakness of working class estate
• Desolation
• Communism
• Utopia and the future
• Dystopia
• Science Fiction
• Post WW2 'concretopia'

Brutalism photographers include: 

• Simon Phipps
• Nick Rochowski
• Nigel Green
• Peter Chadwick

In this photograph I wanted to show brutalist lines and corners and also capture leading lines and the golden spiral. The golden spiral composure lets the viewer follow the stair case round naturally. Following this the pipe on the right hand side follows the staircase up; acting as a leading line. The location of this photograph is a bleak concrete carparks stairway to the top floor.

This photo was taken with a 50mm fixed lens this created a sharp image and allowed me to create a large depth of field. This stair case was poorly lit and had very little natural light. To not underexpose the image I set it to F3.5 and my shutter speed was at 1/50. This image denotes a dirty brutalist stair well. However it connotes a confined, uncomfortable space that the viewer does not know if they're looking up or down. The feeling of discombobulation  is strange and interesting.