#TheNightWatch,#NewPhotography, 2026 by JudithNothnagel. #Museum #Kultur #SaatchiArt #people #Zeitgeist #MobilePhones
My wife walking across the central hall of château the Seneffe (1768), Seneffe, Belgium, 2025

The château de Seneffe was built between 1763 and 1768 by the architect Laurent-Benoît Dewez for Julien Depestre, a newly wealthy business man who became the Count of Seneffe and Turnhout in 1767. In the nineteenth century it became the property of the Philippson family, who restored the then almost a century old mannor and added modern amenities. After being confiscated during World War II, it served various purposes, including a school, before being abandoned and looted. It eventually was saved from demolition and restored as a museum in 1995. 

In the 18th century, wrought iron saw increased use in stairwell construction, particularly for balusters, alongside stone or wooden treads and handrails. The staircase of château the Seneffe is a fine example of this.

The façade of the dwelling, in Neo-Classical style, was built in blue stone that came from Feluy and Ecaussinnes. It’s courtyard is flanked by two long Palladian galleries with ionic columns, which house statues and vases sculpted in the antique style by Laurent Tamine, and lead to a chapel and living quarters, respectively.

#architecture #contemporaryart #building #chateau #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhite #contrast #lightandshadow #everydaylife #bnw #bnwphotography
#contemporaryphotography #contemporaryart #architectlovers #newphotography #beautifullight #light #lightandshadows #monochrome #stairwell #staircase #wroughtiron #neoclassical #stairs
MoMA's 40th 'New Photography' Exhibit Features 13 Boundary-Breaking Photographers

MoMA's "New Photography 2025" exhibition celebrates 40 years of global artists exploring community and identity through photography.

PetaPixel
West facade of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Reims, Reims, France, 2021

A prominent example of High Gothic architecture, Reims Cathedral was built to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. Although little damaged during the French Revolution, the present cathedral saw extensive restoration in the 19th century. However, it was severely damaged during World War I and the church was again restored in the 20th century.
Since the 1905 law on the separation of church and state, the cathedral has been owned by the French state, while the Catholic church has an agreement for its exclusive use. The French state pays for its restoration and upkeep.

The West facade, the entry to the cathedral, particularly glorifies royalty. Most of it was completed at the same time, giving it an unusual unity of style. It is harmonic and balanced, with two towers of equal height and three portals entering into the nave. The porches of the portals, with archivolts containing many sculptures, protrude from the main wall. The two bell towers were originally planned to have stone spires rising 120 m (390 ft) up in the air and making them three times taller than the nave, but they were never finished. Currently the towers measure 81 m (266 ft) in hight. Since 1027 all but seven of France's future kings were crowned at Reims Cathedral.

#church #cityphotography
#bnwphoto #bnwphotography #gothicarchitecture #gothic #gothicart #gothicstyle #blackandwhitephotography #architecture #archtecturephotography #city #bnwphotography #bnw #notredamereims #reims #tower #oldchurch #churchtowers
Crypt of the Cathedral of Saint-Cyr-and-Sainte-Julitte in Nevers, France, 2021

A crypt (from Latin crypta "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi or religious relics. First known in the early Christian period, in particular North Africa and Byzantium, churches were often built over a Mithraic temple, erected in classical antiquity by the worshippers of Mithras. Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in an underground temple, the so called Mithraeum. This Mithraeum was either a natural cave or cavern, or a building imitating a cave, that was adopted by the early christian builders to serve as a crypt for the newly build church above.

In antiquity the Mithraeum primarily functioned as an area for initiation, into which the soul descends and exits. The Mithraeum itself was arranged as an "image of the universe". It is noticed by some researchers that this practice, especially in the context of mithraic iconography, seems to stem from the neoplatonic concept that the "running" of the sun from solstice to solstice is a parallel for the movement of the soul through the universe, from pre-existence, into the body, and then beyond the physical body into an afterlife.

#colorphotography #streetphotographymagazine #streetphotography #nevers #mithras #crypt #contemporaryphotography #romanesquearchitecture #architecturephotography #colorfull #church #amazingarchitecture #devine #light #heavenlylight #romanesque #solstice #architecture #colourphotpgraphy #cathedral #underground #romanesquechurh #colorful #humanity #door #stairs
Entrance of the synagogue of Ulm, Germany, 2023.

On March 2nd I posted a picture of the synagoge of Ulm designed by KSG architects (second photograph). Apart from being a synagoge the building also houses a Jewish community centre within its beautiful and extremely well proportioned modernist cubical structure.

A Mezuzah (Hebrew: מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: מְזוּזוֹת‎ mezuzot) is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah, which Jewish followers of Rabbinical Judaism affix to the doorposts of their homes. In mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, a mezuzah must generally be placed at the entrance and in every doorway in the home, with some exceptions such as bathrooms (which are not a living space) and small closets.

In the Bible, the word mezuzah only refers to the two 'doorposts' or 'doorjambs' of a door, the upright posts on either side of it which support the lintel, and appears in various contexts unrelated to any religious commandment or parchment. The word later acquired the modern meaning of piece of parchment in post-Biblical Hebrew due to the Deuteronomy commandment requiring to write verses on doorposts.

#streetphotography #synagogue #contemporaryphotography #colorphotography #abstract #modernism #entrance #minimalism #modernarchitecture #arcitecture #newphotography #jewish #symmetry #corner #tempel #religion #temple #salomon #colorphotography #colourphotogrphy #doorway #corner #lightanddark #doorpost #starofdavid #windows #stars
188_Untitled 2023
Folded collage on Foam board
Colours are of photographs of skies.
Size: 28 x 19 cm
#contemporaryphotography #contemporaryart #newphotography #collage #collageart #lightandspace #interior #coloursofthesky #sold #torchgallery #popelcoumou
Time lapse photograph of the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, France, 2021

Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle Île, Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte was an influential work of architecture in mid-17th-century Europe. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André Le Nôtre and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time. Their collaboration marked the beginning of the Louis XIV style combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. The garden's pronounced visual axis is an example of this style.

When visitng the chateau last weekend it was turned into an enchanting and fairytale-like castle with thousands of sparkly and colorful lights. It is christmas festivities like these that add an excessive garishness or sentimentality to an already lavish but perfectly balanced piece of baroque architecture. This extra layer of extravagance enables one to get some idea of what it must have been like for people back in the day to lay eyes upon the chateau for the very first time during the festivities of its grand opening in 1661.

As so often is the case with my work, this photograph wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the inspiring music of Jean Michel Jarre, - especially his 45 minute track “Waiting for Cousteau” - and Nils Frahm - in particular his brilliant live performance of “Says”.

#colorphotography #movement #streetphotography #chateau #contemporaryart #movement #modernphotograph #colourphotography #amazing #moving #spacetime #minimalzine #baroquearchitecture #architecture #timelapse #architectureporn #colorful #vauxlevicomte #baroque #jeanmicheljarre #chateaudevauxlevicomte #nilsfrahm
#architecture #buildings #visitfrance
Rijnstraat 50 (Rhinestreet), opposite of Central Station The Hague, The Netherlands, 2024

Never underestimate the power of the ordinary, for it is the very foundation upon which the extraordinary is built. It is the stepping stone that carries us upwards, the canvas upon which we can paint our unique stories. The most profound joys in live can often be found in the simplest of moments. Embracing the beauty of the ordinary enables one to pause, breathe and appreciate the intricate details that often go unnoticed. Legacies are not limited to the realms of the extraordinary but are determined by the ordinary. It is in the familiarity and the simplicity of everyday moments where the beauty of ordinariness lies.

Although many like to interpret YOLO — you only live once — as an invitation to be careless and wasteful, I like to take it into the direction of existentialism: knowing that life has no meaning, what do we do with it? Once we accept the absurdity of life — that it has no predetermined meaning whatsoever — we are free to enjoy the little pleasures, joys and observations of daily life and give them our own meaning. Embracing the ordinary is living live to the fullest. Meaning reveals itself in the most insignificant moments, in the beauty of everyday life.

While waiting for tram 17 at one of the platforms of The Hague Central Station my eyes where met with this everyday scene right across the street, a seemingly insignificant play of light created by the evening sun projecting its last rays of the day through an empty government office building.

#architecture #contemporaryart #building #blackandwhitephotography #railroad #blackandwhite #contrast #lightandshadow #everydaylife #bnw #bnwphotography
#contemporaryphotography #contemporaryart #architectlovers #
#newphotography #beautifullight #light #lightandshadows #citysidewalk #monochrome #thehague #denhaag #denhaagcentraalstation