Fine art street photographer Nina Papiorek discusses how geometric buildings form the foundation of her photos
“What runs through all my photos like a red thread is a minimalist approach,” begins Nina Papiorek, a German photographer whose images combine solitary human figures with imposing architectural structures. “I like tidy, clear images where my eye is led directly to the main subject and is not distracted by anything.
“It’s a mix of street, architecture and urban landscape photography. Depending on my mood, sometimes one genre gets more space, sometimes the other. In the last few years, however, my focus has been on street photography – which is very line- and shape-based in my world.
“I like to use architectural backgrounds or minimalist patterns, work with leading lines and integrate lonesome people into their urban environment.”
Finding a sense of place
Having begun as a hobbyist with a focus on travel photography, Nina later tried her hand at unearthing the art in more immediate surroundings. “I started by photographing the industrial culture in my hometown, an area dominated by mining,” she recalls.
“I was gradually drawn to ‘more beautiful’ motifs, before doing landscape photography for years, mainly as long exposures. This is still a great passion of mine today – I find it liberating to listen to the waves crashing on the sea for minutes while recording a frame. And it was always good training for practising patience,” she adds.
With her own style developing, Nina returned to photographing urban landscapes, discovering the importance of communicating a sense of place as she did so.
“You can always tell in a good picture that the photographer was there – not just physically, but with spirit and understanding, immersed in the scene,” declares Nina. “A good photo triggers something in me; an emotion, the desire to look at it again and again.
“It can be aesthetically pleasing due to its simplicity, or tell the viewer a story through its complexity. Everyone who looks at a photo brings a different wealth of experience, a previous history and their own emotional world – so photos have different effects.
“Generally speaking, a photo only works for me in its entirety,” she notes. “The more things fit together, the more coherent it becomes as an emotional trigger.”
Establishing a style
While most architectural photography focuses purely on the geometry of buildings, Nina’s images often showcase the interplay between the built environment and the people who inhabit it. “Architectural elements serve more as a background,” she explains. “They form the framework for my protagonists, as the human factor plays a major role in my pictures.
“On the one hand, people naturally help to illustrate proportions, but on the other – and in the best-case scenario – they can also tell the viewer a story and give room for personal interpretation.
“My photos can perhaps make you think about our role in the environment we ourselves have created. Have people made a space they no longer fit into? Is man now too small for a world he designed?”
Blending architectural and street photography, Nina maintains a purist approach to both disciplines. “Something that’s important for me to underline is that my works are all candid,” she notes. “I meet my protagonists purely by chance on the street and these people play the decisive role in my images.
“This is based on my deep love for street photography. Staged photos don’t give me anything; they lack a certain authenticity. I like having to work hard to achieve something I can then look at with pride.”
Much of Nina’s output is characterised by its monochromatic presentation. “Black & white photography underlines the minimalist idea,” she continues. “I’ve been addicted to this since my first days as a photographer – nothing distracts, everything is reduced to the essentials.”
The best equipment for architectural photography
Nina intends for her photos to be printed, so she prioritises a large sensor size for supreme detail. “For me, the process only ends when I hold a high-quality fine art print in my hand,” she explains.
“I work with both X Series and GFX System cameras. My FUJIFILM X-H2 enchants me with its compactness, speed and the enormous resolution and quality for an APS-C sensor. When you travel a lot, you want to save every gram of weight, so my choice often falls on the X-H2.”
When not limited by bag space, Nina trades the 40.2-megapixel X-H2 for a 102-megapixel GFX sensor instead. “I have lost my heart to the GFX! She is the boss in my camera bag,” Nina exclaims. “There’s nothing like that exhilarating image quality when you stand just centimetres away from a large print on the wall and discover the smallest shades, nuances and details.
“This is a passion that needs to be experienced and lived to be understood. I use a FUJIFILM GFX100S II and this camera is my fulfilment.”
To maximise her options when framing up contrasting scenes – while ensuring she makes the most of that all-important sensor size – Nina brings along a small selection of zoom lenses for each camera.
“In both systems I currently only use zoom lenses,” she notes. “On the one hand, this gives me the greatest possible flexibility, but on the other it allows me to keep my luggage relatively small.”
With a selection ranging from ultra wide angle to telephoto on each format, Nina likes to keep her options open when composing a photo. Working with the X-H2, she uses the FUJINON XF8-16mmF2.8 R LM WR, XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR and XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR. For the GFX, she packs the GF20-35mmF4 R WR, GF32-64mmF4 R LM WR and the GF100-200mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR. “With three lenses per system, I am fully equipped to meet my needs,” she states.
Finding a frame
When searching for visual interest in built-up areas, Nina prefers to work more instinctively, discovering worthy subjects as she explores.
“I like to walk spontaneously through the city and look for backgrounds, repetitive patterns or an exciting lighting situation,” Nina states. “Especially in unfamiliar places, I feel highly inspired by the foreign and unfamiliar, noticing circumstances I would overlook at home in everyday life.”
That isn’t to say that no preparation is required. “I often find my settings at well-known buildings, so I do research beforehand,” she notes. “When I go on a trip, I usually have a plan in my pocket to help me along if my creativity falls asleep or even leaves me. Such phases happen. After a long period of anticipation, you finally arrive at your destination and suddenly your feet hurt, it’s far too warm or the photos you’ve taken so far don’t satisfy you. My mood can quickly change in those situations,” she laughs.
“In cases like this, I use my plan as a guide and know which place is likely to reawaken my creativity. But I don’t think in advance about which photo might be made there – from which corner of the square it will be created or exactly what the result should look like. In relation to this, I like to go to a place completely unbiased.”
Once struck by an idea, Nina’s techniques for heightening the impact of a building involve maximising its profile in the frame. “To enhance the minimalism of a scene, I often use a borderless representation of the architecture, so you can’t tell whether a building ends at the edge of the picture,” she explains. “As a result, the viewer is initially confused by the dimensions and finds it somewhat more difficult to categorise them.
“Furthermore, the exact alignment of lines plays a major role. I try to completely avoid converging verticals that quickly appear in architectural photos – and eliminate them in post-processing. This is certainly personal taste, but for me the parallelism of lines and correct alignment emphasises the order and tidiness of a scene.
“Sometimes it’s also the little things. For example, when a line ends exactly in the corner of the frame. Even if it’s not that important for the effect of the picture, for me personally it’s the icing on the cake – I always enjoy details like that.”
Colours and contrast
Nina’s evocative use of bright highlights and dark shadows are a staple of her images. “Light and shadow are always effective at giving a composition additional depth and layers, and making it appear more three-dimensional,” she notes.
While certain types of lighting are more favourable for this look, in Nina’s opinion every change in conditions presents a new imaging opportunity. “When the sun is harsh, it’s the long shadows of buildings; when it’s raining, it’s a passerby with an umbrella,” she points out. “The last thing I worry about in my life is the weather.”
For her monochrome work, FUJIFILM Film Simulations help create the desired aesthetic. “I always work with a colour preview on my camera, even though my work is largely black & white. I can’t really explain why,” Nina ponders. “I use a refined Film Simulation of ETERNA Bleach Bypass for getting a better impression of the scene on the display.”
Turning the photos black & white and adjusting the contrast is all done in the editing stage. “This is part of my post-production process,” Nina explains. “I do my final editing from the RAW file in great detail. I am an absolute tonal value obsessive and attach great importance to getting the maximum out of my photo in the edit.”
When it comes to parting advice for those interested in architectural photography, Nina has the following to say:
“Patience plays the biggest role if you don’t want to settle for a mediocre photograph. Over the years, I’ve learnt to deal with the fact you don’t always get what you dream of. But you have to keep at it – keep coming back and, at some point, you will be rewarded for your efforts.”
