Miguel Rodriguez hates being photographed. There are childhood portraits to prove that, he says. “I feel way more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it.” He thinks that’s why he is not a ‘people photographer.’ “Why do to others what I don’t like for myself?”
Instead, Rodriguez’s subject is architectural, because “architecture is one of the most tangible and ubiquitous creations of human consciousness.” In his Silent Observers series though, “the real protagonist is the ever-changing light” that animates the static structures. What fascinates him as a photographer is a fundamental, transformative relationship between architecture and light. In his words, the project shines “a figurative and literal light onto the constant transformation that imbues the historical and contemporary facades with life as the sun traverses the sky.”
Rendered in black and white, stripped away from distractions, the stills focus purely on architectural shapes, ornamentations, volumes, textures and contrast. Absence of colour, Rodriguez says, “creates a layer of separation from the subject, facilitating a new perspective where volumes and patterns emerge.”
Using still and time-lapse photography, the artist’s observation of LA’s rapidly-changing skyline reveals overlooked architectural patterns and impalpable transformations. As Rodriguez says, “Silent Observers is more than an architectural catalogue of Downtown Los Angeles. It is an homage to the only constant in life: change.”