Bauhaus, it’s the genesis of all modern design if you ask me. While I have many opinions about the aesthetic value of Bauhaus design that I will touch upon later, we can’t deny that the design concept of function over form has changed the way product designers work for soon one hundred years.
The Bauhaus school in Dessau is a complex of buildings built around 1923 and designed by Walter Gropius. Fascinating architecture in terms of function and practical use, especially when one factors in that all this is almost 100 years old.
As I don’t travel much with my DSLR anymore, I shoot a lot with my iPhone. It’s a great way to force oneself to improve on composition and post-processing. A particular challenge with iPhone (or any other smartphone) photography is architecture and the barrel effect. I had to pay special attention to that on this series in Dessau, where straight lines are an essential part of the message.
Here is a series of images I took in Dessau, consider that some of them were taken with my son waiting in his stroller.
A quick update on me, I’m not doing too much DSLR work lately as you have noticed. But that doesn’t mean I’m not shooting at all. Actually I’m having quite some fun shooting with my iPhone. If you want to follow my mobile photography check out my flickr stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinsoler/ and just for fun, you can follow my travels (at least some of them) on my flickr map here.
Now about my Bauhaus ramble, well I believe that Bauhaus did a great job when it comes to product design. iPhones are one of the many products that follow the rules of the Bauhaus movement and that’s a pretty neat product. However when it comes to architecture, well somehow I think the Bauhaus buildings are just not that good. Look at the MetLife building in Manhattan as a great example. It’s very functional, but it’s an eyesore.
And about the Bauhaus exhibit itself, well if you aren’t want to see great products and how they were designed, this isn’t the one for you.
Four tips for mobile photography:
1. To get buildings straight, you will need to shoot from a distance and even then you will get a lot of the ground (because you keep your camera straight) so you will need to crop that afterwards.
2. There isn’t much of a solution for the noise on mobile photography, live with it or post process on better software (there aren’t many apps that can handle noise so far).
3. Focus on composition when shooting with smartphones, you’ll have to get the WOW effects in post-processing.
4. Don’t shoot during twilight with your phone, it’s just not a good enough sensor to capture the low-light.
Martin Soler Photography 