Fragments of Light

“Hélène Binet: Fragments of Light” presents at the WUHO Gallery work that emphasizes building’s qualities through the interaction between structure and light.

Le Corbusier, Couvent Sainte-Marie de la Tourette, Eveux, France
For twenty-five years, Hélène Binet has photographed the work of leading contemporary and historical architects, notably Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Peter Zumthor.
Le Corbusier, Firminy C, 2007, digital b/w silver gelatin print. © Hélène Binet, courtesy ammann//gallery
Top: Le Corbusier, Couvent Sainte-Marie de la Tourette, Eveux, France. Above, left: Le Corbusier, Firminy C, 2007, digital b/w silver gelatin print. © Hélène Binet, courtesy ammann//gallery. Right: Peter Zumthor, Kapelle fur den heiligen Bruder Klaus 03, 2009, digital b/w silver gelatin print. © Hélène Binet, courtesy ammann//gallery

Co-curated by Binet and JSI Managing Director Emily Bills, “Hélène Binet: Fragments of Light” presents work that spans her career, including now-iconic photographs of Zumthor’s Therme Vals and Hadid’s Phaeno Science Center.

The photographs on view in Los Angeles emphasize Binet’s meticulous use of analogue photographic processes.“Binet is an advocate of using film over digital methods, developing exquisite prints that reflect a deep concentration on the production of each image,” says Bills.

Zaha Hadid, Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, 2003, digital b/w silver gelatin print. © Hélène Binet, courtesy ammann//gallery
Zaha Hadid, Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, 2003, digital b/w silver gelatin print. © Hélène Binet, courtesy ammann//gallery

Binet is fond of Louis Kahn’s quote “The sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building.” This exhibition features work that reflects Binet’s unique photographic imperative: emphasizing how a building’s atmospheric qualities are created through the interaction between structure and natural light. In this context, she is less preoccupied with the light needed to create a photograph and more with the photograph’s ability to articulate the revealing journey of light through a building.

Binet’s photographs help us to rediscover fleeting moments of visual access, manifested in tightly cropped details. “The sense of the light, the sense of coming out of the dark, it’s something that stays very much in the way I photograph,” says Binet.


February 28 – March 29, 2015
Opening Saturday, February 28, 2015, h. 6.00–8.00 p.m.
Hélène Binet: Fragments of Light
curated by Hélèn Binet and Emily Bills
WUHO Gallery
6518 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
with the support of ammann // gallery

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