“There is no sky in my photographs,” Manuel Bougot tells us. “[mine] is an artistic approach and I didn’t have to follow the ‘rules’ of classical architecture photography. [It] is finally a very classic photojournalism configuration, but I still work on a tripod with a level and take time to control the composition of the picture”

The rejection of traditional forms of political representation in buildings has been one of the key themes of Le Corbusier’s institutional architecture. … However, this rejection does not go to the root of neo-classical monumentality.1 — This conflict may be translated in ability of handling the spaces, or the mentioned human adaptability has changed. Books on the floor, a shortage of space with files accumulating over the years, or, however, a respect to the untouched architecture, represent the bureaucracy living inside the buildings. The relation between the architect and the consumers has its own significance.2

The Capital complex houses the judiciary, legislative and executive powers of the Punjab – or at least it was for this purpose that it was designed. But its powerful imagery obviously aims at more than the mere representation of a provincial government.3 — Designed furniture is progressively leaving Chandigarh4, and improvised workplaces are sometimes arranged with improvised furniture sets. Although the original interior design is being interrupted, the architectural structures remain the impeccable ambient and inspiration for the photographer.5

  • 1. Stanislaus von Moos:  Le Corbusier: Elements of a Synthesis, nai010 publishers; Rep Exp edition, 2013 (page 253)
  • 2. Even if the walls are originally decorated in designed tapestries, painted reproductions celebrate Mahatma Gandhi as well as “Le Corbusier the Great Architect”, although violating the architect’s concept.
  • 3. von Moos (2013, page 249)
  • 4. Exhibit: "Provenance" + Review: The unlikely trajectory of the Modernist furniture designed for Le Corbusier’s utopian Indian city of Chandigarh.
  • 5. The atmosphere of a city and architecture that “was not born of the soil” stays a perfect surrounding for the portraits, and at the point where the vast plain surfaces meet the complex bureaucracy, is emphasized the best in the mutual contrasts.