Peter Zumthor by Helene Binet, Cologne

Hélène Binet, photographer to the starchitects, is showing her latest project at Gabrielle Ammann's gallery in Cologne – a study of the architecture of Peter Zumthor.

Born in Geneva, trained in Rome and living in London, Binet has carved a niche for herself as a photographer who brings buildings to life. More than simply using good lighting or finding a nice angle (though of course she does this too) Binet understands the poetry in architecture and this is what she translates into her photographs.

See more of Binet's Peter Zumthor project

The series on show at Gabrielle Ammann are of three particular Zumthor buildings – the Thermal Baths in Vals, Switzerland, the monolithic Bruder Klaus chapel in Germany and the Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany.

Binet has been photographing the works of particular architecture for twenty years. Former subjects include David Chipperfield, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelblau but most recently – well, for ten years – she’s been photographing the work of Pritzker prize-winning Peter Zumthor. Fascinated with how the Swiss architect plays with landscape, materials, light and shadow, her photographs fall somewhere between documentation and works of art in their own right.

4 September 2009 | Art