Behind the Shot
In 2015, artist Ellsworth Kelly gifted to the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, the design concept for his most monumental work: a building with luminous colored glass windows, a totemic wood sculpture, and 14 black-and-white marble panels. Titled Austin, the structure is the culmination of Kelly’s seven-decade career and the only building he ever designed.
Photographer Quentin Pradal and his wife visited the museum in September 2021 and were impressed by the white pavilion and its colorful geometric windows. “I find so much satisfaction in clean lines and symmetry that I just could not pass on the opportunity to take a picture of this masterpiece. It truly is every architectural photographer’s dream,” he says.
Despite the scorching heat and tourists bustling about, Quentin waited patiently until he could take the perfect shot. “I really wanted to cast aside unnecessary components to get a minimalist, symmetrical, and colorful photograph that I hope serves the same purpose as Kelly’s work—to be a temple of joy and contemplation, a place of calm and light.”