Reading a building turning architecture into visual stories
- Feb 9
- 4 min read
I always liked the idea that buildings can be read. Not in a literal way of course, but if you slow down and really look at it, architecture starts telling you stories. You just need to learn how to listen, or better how to see.
For me photography often starts exactly there, not with the camera but with observation. Walking around a building and getting a feeling of its spaces, shapes, rhythm. They change their tone depending on the light, the weather and the seasons.
Hong Kong is a perfect place for this kind of exercise, here architecture it’s vertically layered and sometimes even a bit aggressive. But inside all that intensity you can still find moments of clarity and strong graphic order and that is usually where I stop and start working.
The China Ferry Terminal and the art of waiting
One of my favorite places in Hong Kong for this kind of architectural experiment is the China Ferry Terminal. It is a complex of buildings with a very clear and simple structure. Pure rectangular volumes straight lines strong verticality and large surfaces of golden colored glass. The way the buildings are arranged creates interesting tensions and leaves room to play with empty areas and negative space. In a few words it is the perfect “gym” for training my architecture photography skills.
Everything there seems to push you forward. Even when you are standing still you feel like you should be moving somewhere.
The first suggestion I can give when approaching a place like this, especially if you are not very familiar with is to slow down. Take your time to explore it. Feel the atmosphere analyze the spaces watch how people transform them and see how light shapes and interacts with the volumes. You need to feel the place before trying to photograph it.
In my opinion the most photogenic part is the upper level, which is not where people take the boats so it is much quieter and often almost empty. Human presence can be added if you want but if you are aiming for minimalist or pure architecture images you will not miss it too much.
What fascinates me about this building is the symmetry and the repetition: repetition creates rhythm and rhythm creates meaning.
Using multiple exposure here can be tricky: too much and everything collapses, too little and nothing happens. So I usually keep it simple. One static exposure to establish the structure, one more to introduce a human element or a subtle shift, but sometimes I played with 4 shots together, with a rotation of 90° each: the idea is to create a “mandala-like” shot with architecture elements. When it works the result can be quite hypnotic, but these kinds of images require a lot of precision and even a very small misalignment can ruin the whole frame. So yes, it’s definitely not easy and most attempts end up in the bin.
Over the years I have returned to this spot many times and each visit gave me a new way to read the geometry and the relationship between the buildings. And that is probably why I keep going back.
The Murray and the beauty of repetition
Another fantastic building is The Murray hotel: minimalist facade with repetitive windows all perfectly aligned and a strong sense of order. At ground level a series of large arches open the building and give it a very solid and almost monumental feeling. It might feel boring or too simple, but if you analyze it is not and actually to me it’s one of the most interesting buildings in that area.
Every time I look at it I cannot avoid thinking about the “Colosseo Quadrato” in the EUR district in Rome, the rationalist building from the fascist period (…and I am pretty sure that the architects of The Murray took reference to it). The reference feels quite clear: same rhythm, same repetition, same idea of architecture as a monument.
The Murray is a dream if you like minimalism. The facade is already doing most of the work for you, so the challenge is not finding a subject but deciding how much of it you really need in the frame.
Shooting there is not always easy though, you know Hong Kong, so it’s hard to frame it from some angle, plus the building it’s very close to an elevated road and that can be frustrating, but sometimes that exact road becomes part of the story: from certain angles the road cuts through the scene as a strong graphic line and that contrasts very nicely with the rigid order of the facade.
During one shooting session there I ended up collecting a small group of images that felt connected. Minimal compositions, strong symmetry, very controlled color palette, almost monochrome. I later grouped them into a small series that I called “Urban Stories”. The idea was simple: let the building speak through repetition and let small details suggest a narrative. Just architecture reduced to its essential language.
Looking up
One last thing I learned over time is to stop looking only straight at buildings. Especially in a city full of towers and skyscrapers and with limited spaces like Hong Kong that approach can become very limiting. Sometimes all it takes is a small shift: just raise your head.
Looking up changes everything, lines start to converge, perspectives become more dramatic and familiar buildings suddenly feel strange again. Facades you thought you knew turn into abstract patterns and the sense of scale becomes much stronger.
With tall buildings this simple gesture can completely change the way you read the architecture and often those unusual viewpoints are exactly where the most interesting images are hiding.
Reading before shooting
If I had to give one advice it would be this: read the building before shooting it.
Walk around, look up, look down, step back step closer…in few words: explore it. Try to understand what the architecture is doing to you physically and emotionally.
Only after that pick up your camera.
So next time you are in front of a building, what story do you think you can uncover from it?
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