Mastodawn

Ruben Philipsen Apr 10, 2025

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

Ruben Philipsen Mar 18, 2025

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

Ruben Philipsen Mar 2, 2025

Nineteenth century bronze statue of a male nude in the gardens of Powerscourt Estate (Irish: Eastát Chúirt an Phaoraigh), located in Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland.

The male nude in art is not as often talked about as its female counterpart. However, apart from being idealized and easy on the eye, the male body in art is full of history and has undergone a host of fascinating transformations over the past 2000 years. The establishment of Art Academies across Europe from the sixteenth through to the eighteenth century had a big impact on the male nude. Not only did these academies bring along a very regulated, classicised style, but life drawing and sculpting was seen as a central element of artistic education and an eye for realistic bodily structure was valued. Furthermore, as the Academies favoured grand classical and historical subjects, the male nude often pops up as a young, strong, masculine, heroic character. Looking at todays modern culture and the male body image it presents to us nothing much seems to have changed since then.

Never the less, seeing and experiencing real nudity was rare during the prudish 19th century. At first, nudes invaded the public space through neoclassical and academic art to the detriment of reality. Moreover, social conventions also allowed women to unveil some parts of their body but only in specific cases. Yet, we know little about nudity in private spaces or practices, including sexual activity or washing oneself. In fact, nudity was probably experienced in marginal places such as brothels, the privacy of ones bedroom and in the spaces of a new somatic culture such as beaches, barracks, or gyms.

#sculpture #arthistory #bronzestatue #bronze #classicalart #statues #anatomy #realisticsculpture #femalebody #malenude #malenudity #male #humananatomy #statue #classicalart #architecture #powerscourt #sensual #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #contemporaryphotography #contemporaryart

Ruben Philipsen Mar 2, 2025

The synagogue of Ulm, Germany, 2023.

The Jewish symbol of the Star of David is used to create patterned windows in the limestone walls of the synagogue in Ulm, Germany. The town's original synagogue was torn down in 1938 as part of the Kristallnacht, or "night of broken glass", a series of attacks on Jewish community buildings within Nazi Germany. After World War II, a secular building was constructed where the old synagogue once stood. The current synagogue was reinstated right beside the site of its predecessor, in the middle of the square. It is as though the synagogue has taken a step forward from its former position, reclaiming its location. Both a synagogue and a Jewish community centre are contained within the cubical structure, which stands apart from the surrounding buildings. With no constructed borders, it stands abrupt and solitary recalling the building of the first temple.

When Solomon was building his temple to God, there was to be no noise. The stones were to be hewn in the quarry and brought to the place of construction. One of the stones was the largest stone ever taken out of a quarry. It’s a miracle of engineering that without the use of earth moving machinery, the Israelites were able to haul this enormous cubical stone to the temple site and set it in place. Once there, the builders weren’t sure what to do with it. It didn’t seem to fit anywhere in the blueprints for the temple. So, the builders pushed it over the temple mount into the Kidron Valley and there it lay. Later, they realized their mistake and hauled it back up again. They placed it in the foundation of the temple and it remains on the western wall of the temple mount to this day.

#streetphotography #synagogue #contemporaryphotography #colorphotography #abstractphotography #modernism #stars #window #windows #minimalism #modernarchitecture #arcitecture #newphotography #jewish #starofdavid #symmetry #corner #tempel #religion #temple #salomon #colorphotography #colourphotogrphy

Ruben Philipsen Feb 27, 2025

Wouter in the central space of the steel maze on the old mining site C-mine, Genk, Belgium, 2022.

There’s an enduring stereotype that women tend to be worse than men when it comes to spatial reasoning. Mentally rotating an object, coming up with strategies to maneuver a big piece of furniture through small corridors, giving directions through a city, navigating through a maze, even reading a map ― basically anything that requires visualizing and manipulating 3D objects is thought, by some, not to be women’s strong suit. But there remain many holes in this popular narrative. Are women born different or brought up differently? Would it be possible to close the gap with training? Does the gap even really exist, or does it depend on the particular tests used to measure spatial cognition? Could it be that men and women tend to make use of different mental processes when solving spatial problems? Different ways of coming up with solutions for everyday spatial problems could explain why men seem to preform better in certain environments because for centuries much of the layout and mapping of the world surrounding us was - and to this day often still is - predominantly determinded by other men.

#contrast #shadowandlight #shadow #maze #labyrinth #streetphotographerscomunity #streetphotographer #streetphotography #contemporaryphotography #genk #gijsvanvaerenbergh #newphotography #gramoftheday #blackandwhitephoto #blackandwhitephotography #bnwphotography #blackandwhite #bnw #bnwphotography #bnw-addicted #longshadows

Ruben Philipsen Feb 25, 2025

My dear wife Loes walking underneath a railroad bridge, Passage du Sablon, Metz, France, 2019.

Railroad bridges are usually made of either stone, concrete, steel or timber. Nearly all of the North American, South American and Asian railroad bridges were built of either steel or timber. In Europe, Russia and parts of China, timber was almost never used but concrete and stone were quite prevalent. The simple arch bridge not only is the most beautiful and spectacular of all railroad bridge types but it is also the most perfect form for handling the heavy load of a train since the materials in the bridge are always in compression. Arches are shaped into some form of either a semicircle or a segmental. If the arch is made of steel, hinges are often located at the two springing points to relieve temperature related expansion and contraction stresses.

#architecture #contemporaryart #building #blackandwhitephotography #railroad #bridge #metz #blackandwhite #contrast #lightandshadow #bnw #bnwphotography
#contemporaryphotography #contemporaryart #architectlovers #architectlovers #newphotography #beautifullight #light #lightandshadows #walking #citysidewalk #railroadbridge #monochrome