Façades of Brooklyn Heights by Robert Rieger
A snapshot of the old-world charm
I will never forget the first time I visited Brooklyn. My nineteen year old self completely fell in love with its architecture, its earthy palette and its distinctive aura. I remember entering the neighborhood and walking around with an enraptured look in my eyes. I had never seen anything like it. I looked to my right where my friend from Vermont was standing and said: “I will live here for some time when I’m older”.
Who knows if the day will come where my nineteen year old self will make her dream come true, I definitely do not know -especially as the prices keep going up. In the meantime, the brownstone multi-story buildings that fill the tree-lined streets of the neighborhood are still ingrained in my mind, as well as the warm, reddish-brown sandstone that is present omnisciently. It creates a serene and alien atmosphere that Robert Rieger has managed to capture to the core in his new photography book called Façades of Brooklyn Heights.
Looking at the pictures taken by the Berlin-based photographer, I was immediately transported not only to the 19th-century-neighborhood, but also to the feelings I experienced when I was there. And that is exactly the reason why Robert, from all the neighborhoods in the world, chose to depict Brooklyn Heights: “I fell in love with the feeling of this neighborhood: the old-world charm – it almost feels like a snapshot of 19th-century New York City”. The author describes the experience in the most accurate phrase: “it feels right off a movie set”.
Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, just across the East River from Lower Manhattan, we are immersed in this gleaming area where time appears to not pass. Here, the soundtrack of the crowded New York City is only a few kilometers away, but it feels years away. Walking through the relic that is Brooklyn Heights, we immediately dive into calmness. It is no wonder that the first historic district has been the home of some of the most influential celebrities in the last centuries.
Often chained to the rapidly passing everyday life, Robert’s book acts as an escape route of stress and focus. As he puts it: “This book should be exactly for those times off work and stress, for me the images convey a beautiful autumn walk in the afternoon”. With this book, the photographer definitely illustrates a fall scene: with gradient earthy tones, the pictures transmit the air getting crispier and the summer warmth slowly getting chillier. The scenery feels cozy.
The light is probably the main character of the book. In an alchemistic way, it hits the idiosyncratic architecture of the neighborhood and enhances every single one of its details. The Corinthian columns, the triangular pediments and the symmetrical layouts give it a royal feel but, at the same time, endow it with a beautiful simplicity that can only be achieved through traditional architecture.
Even though the faint but potent illumination can be perceived in every image, it is one of the most challenging aspects of exterior photography: “In regards to light, you need to either plan very specifically when you shoot or have good luck with the light you want”. Robert shoots both interior and exterior, usually centered about capturing the different kinds of architecture: “To me, it’s always important to capture the character of an area or building”, he mentions when talking about his inspiration. “To achieve this, it’s important to take some time to get to know the space, I love the process of exploring and working my way through without a camera to check out angles”.
The photographer is fascinated by submerging into those places: “Even if a space seems boring on its first impression, there’s often a lot associated with it”. A similar process happens when flipping through Façades of Brooklyn Heights: “It might seem that some fronts look almost the same, but when you look closer, it varies a lot and each house looks unique and tells a story”. Each photograph points out the individualistic traits of every building, giving them their own history and their own personality, within the precious uniform that they are dressed in.
The unique details are increasingly accentuated by the emptiness of the streets. Almost in an apocalyptic aesthetic, there are no distractions in the pictures: “I intentionally don’t show cars or people who are distracting the architecture. In some images you can see surveillance cameras or acs on the walls, but they’re mostly hidden”. No people, no sounds, no cars, no distractions: only pure and authentic architectural forms varnished with the earthy palette that swiftly gleams as the rays hit it. Right off a movie set.
