A Visual Study of America’s Architectural Landscapes over 35 Years #CelebratePhotography

Houston Texas 1985 by William W Fuller

Via featureshoot

Rising from the depths of all great American cities, stand the monolithic skyscrapers and tower blocks that have become solid icons of the modern metropolis. For thirty-five years, Arizona-based photographer William W. Fuller has been using his lens as a way to navigate the urban jungle and to study the architectural landscapes of America. Having driven across the States dozens of times in his car, Fuller has visited many of America’s major cities, including: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Miami, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Denver, Phoenix, Houston, and Atlanta.

In Fuller’s series The City, buildings that usually form part of the backdrop, emerge elegantly into the foreground. In his detail-orientated large format photographs, we notice the beauty and geometry of the architecture: the echo of windows like shattered piano keys, the perfectly vertical lines, the prism-like surfaces of tower blocks set against a moody sky, hard shapes juxtaposed with soft nimbus cloud. The sights are familiar, yet unfamiliar – totally absent and deserted of people, the buildings look as though they’re part of a model city. Because of this, the images have an undeniable timeless quality about them.

Now that almost four decades have passed since Fuller began taking these photographs, he has finally compiled his images into a book, containing a mesmerizing showcase of his fine art large format black-and-white work bound under the title, The City: A Formalist View of American Urban Architecture. In the opening of his book, curator Dr. Rebecca Senf writes of his work: “[Fuller’s] compositions emphasize formal qualities – light and shade, shape and negative space, line and pattern – by collapsing layers of buildings and sky into flat arrangements. This modernist approach to making pictures, one which privileges the visual qualities of the resulting photograph over the literal or symbolic meaning of the subject, is one Fuller has pursued consistently and with lifelong dedication.”

See more and find more of William W. Fuller’s work on his website.


BuildingCloud Chicago Illinois 1987 by William W Fuller


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.