Potsdamer Strae 50 Berlin

This prosaic address hides an icon of modern architecture, the
Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin. Built between 1962 and 1968, it is
the only structure Mies van der Rohe built in Europe aft er the
Second World War. Despite the radically minimal fl oor plans, it is
a complex spatial continuum realised with what only appears to
be a simple set of tools. Mies van der Rohe's staging is designed to
fluidly shape and defi ne the transitions between city and museum,
public and non-public, interior and exterior, subject and object.
As a trained architect who has been photographing architecture
for decades, Ulrich Schwarz looks for ways to translate space into
sequences of images. To this end, he uses precise axial camera
shift s to trace movements in space, image by image. When looking
at the sequences in the book, each photograph is overwritt en
by the following variation; the motifs build on each other and
eliminate each other at the same time. This strictly conceptual
book questions our viewing habits and spatial experiences in a
fascinating way.