The project explores the urban landscape of Helsinki not merely as an objective reality, but as a subjective experience, a dialogue between the visible structure of the city and the emotional resonance it carries. Shot entirely on black-and-white analogue film (both 35mm and medium format), the images abandon the rigidity and commercial tone of the traditional architectural photography, favouring an instinctive and personal gaze. The contrast between different areas of the city, in particular its center and the suburban edges, reveals tensions between belonging and estrangement.
At its core, the work questions how we perceive the spaces we inhabit. In Kantian terms, the cityscape exists both as phenomenon—the constructed, observable environment shaped by gentrification and social shifts—and as noumenon, the essence beyond what can be directly grasped. The photographs attempt to navigate this duality, capturing the tangible yet searching for traces of something deeper.
Rather than offering commercially appealing images of architecture, this project rejects representation as mere documentation. The goal is not to promote Helsinki’s architecture, but to seek a personal connection with the urban landscape. Some images are paired with minimalist sketches that strip the landscape to its most basic elements—lines and shades, structures reduced to their essence. These drawings function as an abstract counterpoint to photography, reinforcing the idea that space is not only seen but also felt, interpreted, and reconstructed within each observer’s mind.
In the end, this project is less about the city itself and more about the act of seeing, pointing and framing. An intimate practice that attempts to bridge the visible and the intangible.
“Architecture is the form in which many cultural forces find expression, and become accessible to a visual medium.” S. Shore
Documentation of sketch study, 52 pages.
2021-2024
Filippo Zambon 