Elbphilharmonie Pathétique 2013 - 2016

In the course of three years I´ve taken pictures of Hamburgs Elbphilharmonie. The never-ending construction site was one of Germanys infamous gigantomanic and money devouring incompetency nightmares; in company with Berlin Brandenburg Airport and Stuttgart 21 Railway station it represents the sick alpha male domination of the German political decision-making process. Unlike the other two, the Elbphilharmonie has finally come to a "happy" end (who would´ve thought? Certainly not me), celebrating its grand opening with a spectacular show in January of 2017. Reasonable suspicion of corruption, politicians bowing to lobbyists and the bill finally being paid by the ever patient taxpayer, all forgotten with a grand concert and lightshow in one night.

The pictures were taken when the building was still under construction. I never intended to make a series from them, I just took the pictures as I strolled around the area on numerous visits to Hamburg, after all, it is quite an eye-catcher. Now, in retrospect I find the pictures quite interesting. Different angles, different times of day, different moods, different camera equipment and different stages of nearly finished construction. The Elbphilharmonie had become another icon of Hamburg even in its unfinished stages. It is a superlative in its purposes and from an architectural viewpoint.

Pics are in (almost) chronological order.

I wasn´t aware that I´d taken these two pictures from an almost identical position until I

scanned through the Hamburg collection. Two years lie between them.

The Hamburg Gallery