Whether it's on the distant skyline viewed from Hampstead Heath, glimpsed through a window in the Tate as the moon rises or soaring imperiously skyward from behind the surrounding buildings, you can't really miss The Shard, London and the UK's tallest building. Designed by the architect Renzo Piano and completed in 2012, its 95 storeys hold offices, an hotel, restaurants, residences and viewing platform at the top. Love it or hate it (I'm not sure) it is dominant - and infuriatingly hard to photograph well, in my experience!
Incidentally, the exhibition I went to see at the Tate was 'The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection'. I highly recommend it. As a photographer, I was enthralled by the images on display, which included well known icons like Man Ray's 'Glass Tears' (1932), Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' (1936) and a host of lesser known but significant photos, collected over the past 25 years by Sir Elton John and normally displayed in his home. On until 7 May 2017.
In a strange way, the building has a mysterious charm. The first photo is enchanting, and the last captures the Shard really well.
ReplyDeleteI think you did well getting pics of the Shard!
ReplyDeleteGood old Elton!
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly the Shard does not appeal to me, but I'm generally of that view of a lot of modern architecture.
ReplyDeleteI like it better than quite a few of its contemporaries. Your first photo from Hampstead Heath is quite nice.
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