Thursday Salute to Originals: Time Slice Photos
Creating distinct renditions of our built environment both at specific moments and over periods of time, photography and timelapse video have a special place in the showcasing of architecture. Typically regarded as separate entities, still imagery and motion pictures document the world in completely different formats, each interpreting the subject and its facets in a unique manner.
What happens when the defining elements of these two media – capturing a single, still moment vs. capturing a series of moments in motion – are combined? A visual hybrid is born, redefining our perception of architecture and the progression of time.
Photos of building facades at sunset may seem like a dime a dozen, but the work of photographer Richard Silver is different. Silver’s “Time Slice Global” series depicts changing daylight at world famous landmarks, composed of slices taken at different points in the day and stitched together into a single image. Not only do the images show the shifting day to night patterns of the sky, but also how the architecture fluctuates over time; crowds gather or dissipate and internal lighting becomes more or less apparent depending on the position of the sun.
In essence, Silver’s images present the experience of viewing both a still image and a timelapse video at once, a phenomenon he calls “altered visual context”. We salute Richard Silver for merging those two media into a new expression that can bend time and ultimately create a new lens through which to view our built environment.
(And speaking of capturing moving moments…if you’re in the mood for time lapse in the traditional sense, try checking out the videos of our latest installs.)
Image credits: Richard Silver