Approximately 68 000 cubic meter earth mass moved, 1600-ton reinforced concrete used, 180 km electric cable laid and 4300 lights installed: these are some of the construction data of the renovated campus of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), which 5000 people had been working on for 5 years. After the renovation of the building complex had been finished, the Centre of Key Government Investments called for a MOME Campus architectural photography tender, where I was awarded first place in ’photo series’ category with my following series. My photo series together with the other awarded photos can be visited at an exhibition taking place in MOME Ground building until mid-January.
How did I take the architectural photos? What was my objective?
A photo series can be really epic if it shows itself to be consistent both visually and in content. I took all the photos of the building in portrait format and with the same focal length (17mm TSE and a 2x teleconverter) within some hours in order to have similar lighting conditions. The first photo was taken 2 hours before sunset, and as I had worked out an exact concept, I was able to shoot all the other ones within a short time. I had in mind all the exterior and interior images what I exactly wanted to see in the photos, thanks to the fact that I had visited the site several times before I started working there.
When I was shooting the interior pictures, first, I set the composition and then I was waiting for something interesting to happen that could fill up the space. In the first case a university student – as I assume – was walking to the entrance, when she stopped for a moment thoughtfully. This moment was what I needed. Before I started shooting my second interior photo, a student had already been sitting in the lecture room, and she was working on her notebook. Luck was riding with me. In the case of the 3 exterior building photos, somebody always turned up with 10 minutes waiting to bring some life and motion into the photo.
At the award ceremony; dr. Domonkos Schneller, Deputy State Secretary at Prime Minister’s Office on the left and Dániel Barcza, Deputy Rector responsible for strategy and research. Photo: ODPictures.
I was delighted to close my professional year with such an honourable award, which has given me new momentum to jump into the new projects of the next year. Let me wish you all merry Christmas holidays, a happy new year and plenty of successful projects in 2020. See you next year.
