Some personal favourites of buildings and architecture I’ve photographed over the years…

I have loved photographing buildings and architecture for as long as I can remember. I love the lines, the angles, the shapes, the shadows, the functionality, the art forms and the stories that are held within their history.

Here are a few photos I have taken over the years that I feel hold some or all of those features.

Hope you like them ☺️

I couldn’t resist snapping this beautiful house in Nicosia, Cyprus. I love the white against the blue sky. Typically Greek I always think! My favourite aspect, though, has to be the fabulous steps that have worn away over many years, leaving you wondering whose feet have created the dips in the stone over the many years that the steps have existed.

This is the old St Andrew’s Asylum building in Norwich. Derelict for years, it tells a story of the history of mental health establishments in the UK. Unfortunately, it is even worse condition after a recent fire that raged through the carcass of the building and the surrounding land. I feel sure that it will be demolished, soon so am glad to have taken this when I did.

A few years ago, my family and I were fortunate enough to live in a flat in this beautiful Georgian terrace in Bath.

Like a futuristic film set, this building is part of what’s known as ‘The City of Arts and Sciences’ in Valencia. It is really quite something to behold as you first enter the city by car!

I cannot for the life of me remember where this was taken, other than it was a staircase in a hotel, somewhere in the UK. I might not be able to remember the details but I still think it’s beautiful!

As part of my career as an academic, I presented at a conference in Toronto, Canada. What a city! I could have spent the whole time wandering around finding amazing things to photograph. There was something a it hypnotic about looking up at the geometric patterns made by the wires, here, and how they seem to connect the surrounding sky scrapers.

Lastly, but by no means least, this photo is one of my all times favourites. I spent a couple of weeks in China, teaching undergraduates at the Hunan University of Humanities, Science and Technology in the city of Loudi. Whilst wandering the streets one evening, we stumbled across a man writing out (what I was told was) ancient Chinese poetry, using only water and a large calligraphy brush. I was completely taken by the way he gently moved the brush over paving stones that were set in a contrastingly brutalist, concrete environment, and that after a few minutes, the characters faded and disappeared.