Assignment 3.7 Fünf Höfe

The Fünf Höfe, Five Courtyards, shopping center is one of Munich's newest (completed in 2003) and certainly one of the most innovative from a visual standpoint.  I am drawn to a shopping center for this project due to the continual bustle of people and the colour of the shop displays.  I am also interested in the consumerism and greed that these places signify, traits that I am as much guilty of as anyone, especially when it comes to technology.  The use of such a building is varied, but ultimately comes down to access and the use of display to draw customers into the shops to remove as much money, as quickly as possible.

On entering the shopping area this is the scene

This is not very sharp as it is hand held in low light, however, the movement of the people in the foreground and the child on the bike add a dynamic.  This would represent access as the use case.  An even more blurred image shows a man sweeping this area, just after a bunch of teenagers walked through throwing food at each other.

The lighting and colour of the ceiling walking further into the building makes for a visually strong image, either portrait or landscape

On a corner is a small bar serving food, another use case, although one that will require another visit, should I plan to develop this concept any further.  I particularly like the second image, although it is well out of focus

On this visit I did not dwell on the shops too much, but captured the following two frames that I was satisfied with

In each case I have deliberately captured people walking or standing in front of the shop, adding scale and some depth to the images.  The second works best, with the dark figure contrasting with the bright shop and the two people walking by.  This is the "use" of a shopping center.  My final 3 images are of one of the "courtyards", this one dominated by a massive steel frame ball, that seems to hover above the shopper, almost as if it is an alien spaceship waiting to pluck someone out of this world: