Classic Chinese Architecture
A giant cauldron in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.
Bold and striking, yet serene and sublime, Chinese architecture can be breathtakingly beautiful to behold.
Demanding attention and encouraging contemplation Chinese architecture has a history going back as far as the Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE to 1046 BCE).
What I like most about Chinese architecture is its use of color symbolism and how it promotes notions of harmony and cohesion.
A number of interesting concepts characterize Chinese architecture. Here’s a few important examples.
The use of enclosed, open spaces
Bilateral symmetry
Feng Shui principals
Incorporation of cosmic and mythological symbolism in its design
China is a massive country, the fourth largest in the world after Russia, Canada and the USA.
Great examples of Chinese architecture can be found both inside and outside the Peoples Republic Of China.
Some of mainland China’s most famous examples of Chinese architecture include the following:
The Great Wall
Forbidden City, Beijing
City Wall Of Xian
Potala Palace, Lhasa
Confucius Temple, Nanjing
Important Details Can Help Tell A Story
The dragon is a potent mythological being in Chinese culture symbolizing power, strength and prosperity (i.e., good luck).
This photo features a detail of a dragon’s head on a huge, brass cauldron within The Forbidden City in Beijing.
The image of the cauldron came out of frustration at having too many people moving, beyond my control, in and out of a larger composition I’d be trying to create.
The Forbidden City is a very popular tourist site and it was really crowed during this particular visit.
Instead of continuing to wait, I decided to look for details within this monumental environment.
As a way of exploring abstraction I moved in close to the cauldron. This achieved two interesting results:
Placed emphasis on the dragon’s head
Isolated the cauldron from its surroundings
The shape and textural qualities inherent to the cauldron were also emphasized by my decision to move closer.
To further promote those particular elements of composition I decided a black and white rendering was worth investigating.
I processed the original RAW file and applied a subtle warm/cool split tone to the image on the desktop.
About To Travel?
Also known as the Palace Museum the Forbidden City is a fascinating site, particularly for anyone interested in architecture.
Located just to the north of Tiananmen Square the Forbidden City was once the imperial palace of the Qing and Ming dynasties.
Today the Forbidden City is one of the largest and most popular tourist sites in the world. I've had the good fortune to visit several times since my first visit back in, I think, 1990.
The concept of space and the ability to move through it is evident as you explore the various buildings and structures throughout this huge complex.
Red wall, orange roof pavilions and blue sky in the Forbidden City.
How To Make Great Photos In A Crowded Location
Now that it's open to the masses the Forbidden City is a very busy place with lots of individual and group tourists moving through this large and architecturally significant space.
The photos in this post were made during my most recent visit. It was a cold (-4 Celsius) winter's day in January.
Despite the brisk weather, the day was sunny and thousands of people, mostly Chinese tourists, moved through the complex in an almost continuous stream.
Unfortunately the constant stream of people made it difficult to produce a coherent composition, given the historical and cultural significance of the architecture I was attempting to photograph.
That many visitors can make it hard to compose an architectural image that is free of people.
Patience and good luck is required to get the image before one or more people move into your frame.
I waited for about 20 minutes until there was a momentary break in the stream of people moving through the above scene of the colorful pavilions set against a vivid blue sky.
I know it’s often possible to remove people from photos with Photoshop. I just don’t do it, as the results seem somehow less authentic to me.
I’m not going to suggest that you should follow my more traditional approach. It’s just what works for me and how I prefer to make photos.
I'm glad my patience was rewarded but, with so much more to see and photograph, sometimes a different approach is required.
And I think that’s particularly the case during those shorter winter days when sunset arrives so very early for the enthusiastic travel photographer.
Here’s the approach I took which ended up giving me a diverse and interesting group of images from my visit to the Forbidden City.
Photographing grand architectural spaces
Delicate details and close up studies
While the inclusion of people into a photo can be beneficial to the story you’re trying to tell and by introducing a sense of scale to a photo, they can also become a distraction.
That’s particularly the case when you’re trying to explore a sense of space or create a sense of timelessness.
You see fashion dates a photo, and color photos make it easy to get a sense of when a photo was made.
By removing color you’ve already begun to remove the subject or scene depicted from its actual reality. And that can be the first step to moving a photo from a successful snapshot towards art.
Three men stepping through a gate at the Forbidden City in Beijing.
People Can Bring A Place To Life
An alternative approach is to include people to help tell a story associated with the site in question.
That’s exactly what I did after seeing these three men approaching a gate in the grounds of the Forbidden City.
Timing was the key to photographing these three men. I'd just walked through this beautiful red gate and noticed the men walking towards me.
I turned around, back tracked and set up my camera in a way that used the gate to frame the three of them walking through it.
Fortunately they walked through, more or less, together and good timing ensured an interesting candid image.
I like the fact that, while seemingly the same, each individual is slightly different to the other.
Light pattern on a window shutter in The Forbidden City, Beijing.
Bend Like A Reed In The Wind
When you find your ambitions for grand architectural images compromised by the crowds it's worthwhile making an effort to explore details on walls, doors, statues and the like.
I love this image of light dancing on the side of a freshly painted window shutter.
It's one of my favorite photos from that particular visit to the Forbidden City. And it came in response to not being able to make the kind of image I wanted to.
As the saying goes, "Bend like a reed in the wind."