THE TITANIUM WALL
THE GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, BILBAO
Image Number 237
When the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in 1997, it was hailed as one of the world’s most spectacular buildings and described by some as “the greatest building of our time”. The New Yorker, characterized it as “a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium”, its brilliantly reflective panels also reminiscent of fish scales.
The museum unfolds its interconnecting shapes of stone, glass and titanium on a 32,500-square-meter site in the old industrial heart of Bilbao.
Atticus Webb was so taken by the swirling organic forms and the play of light on the titanium cladding that he spent six hours photographing the exterior. The museum closed for the day before he could make it inside.
TECHNICAL NOTES
Captured by Atticus Webb mid afternoon on a Zeiss Contax 645 medium format camera with Zeiss 55 mm medium wide angle lens at f11 with an exposure of 1/45th of a second. The image was registered on a transparency using Fuji Velvia 50 ASA film. It was then scanned in high resolution by Bond Imaging. The image has not been cropped and has not been manipulated. Handfinished by Bond imaging Melbourne on Ilfoflex high definition paper.
The image benefits from the evanescent play of light and colour across the plane of the wall. This is clearly the single purpose of the image, except for the glimpse of domesticity in the top left corner. The composition is informed by the surrealist art housed within the museum itself.
This print is one of a small number of images with special designation. It has never been entered in public competition or previously exhibited. Production is limited to 50 prints, individually signed and numbered by the photographer.