Alexander Gavrilov: Moscow’s Architecture in Kodak T-Max

All images by Alexander Gavrilov. Used with creative commons permission.

Admittedly, when you think about big, sprawling buildings and architecture you don’t often think about Moscow in the way that you would a place like Chicago, Toronto or NYC. But Photographer Alexander Gavrilov has work that is bound to make you think different. To create these low contrast images, Alex used Kodak T-Max and a Kiev 88 SLR camera. The sharpness that you see comes from what Kodak T-Max was designed to do: give a lot of attention to details though with not a whole lot from the midtones.

Alex’s images use many of the fundamentals of urban geometry involving the use of lines, shapes, etc. His images give an almost Twilight Zone look to the city while adding a bit of modern flair. This is all accented by Alex’s use of shadows and light to sometimes make it look like some parts of the scenes are blending into one another. Combined with the fairly contrasty light of an afternoon, what you tend to get are these scenes with buildings against an almost stagnant and plain background that is the sky.