The Torre Agbar is a modern 38 story tower that is situated near the Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes. It was designed by master architect Jean Nouvel who’s other masterpieces include the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne. As one would imagine the Torre Agbar has been the ridiculed by some as looking like a giant sex toy and is known by unflattering nicknames such as “el supositori” (the suppository). All this being said the tower is remarkable in many ways. For example there are over 4,500 window opening cutout of the structural concrete. Each of the windows has it’s own LED light that can change colour making for some very beautiful light displays. In interviews Nouvel has often said that his inspiration for the Torre Agbar was the towers of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia crossed with an erupting water geyser since one of the main occupants of the building is Barcelona’s main water utility company.
I had just finished photographing Sagrada Familia when I decided to walk to the Torre Agbar which is visible from the top of the spires of the church. It is a bit of a trek but I find it the best way to come across unknown treasures to shoot and also it is a great way to approach the target that you want to photograph. If I had just taken the subway to the tower I would never have come by this location to shoot from. This was the first time that I had seen the Torre Agbar and I had heard that at a certain time at night the lights changed colour and I did not want to miss it. While it is still a really cool looking building illuminated in blue and green I was hoping to capture it in the deep red and blue that I had seen in other photos. I wasn’t sure when the lights changed colour so I hurried on from this point to get a closer perspective. Just as I approached the tower I was wondering if it was going to happen at all so I decided to ask someone if they knew when the lights changed. At that very moment there was a very subtle buzzing sound as the Torre Agbar changed into it’s evening wear blue and red lighting and it was gorgeous! I’ll have some photos of that in a future blog post.
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Beautiful light and colors
Love this treatment
Great job
Nice job. I like the texture HDR processing has on concrete structures. Well done.
Thank you Andrey and Chris, that was a fun day and night of shooting for me. :^)
fantastic picture. This is really good. Nice picture. and congrarts
i really like the way u do ur photos:))) shame u didn’t get Torre Agbar with violet and green colour, too!
I have other photos of the Torre Agbar in different colours. I’ll post them in a future blog post. Glad you like the photos :^)