Élan

“Élan”, Saint-Thomas church, Strasbourg, Alsace, 2012.

From the outside, St Thomas’ church in Strasbourg shows heavily its Romanesque origins: massive squared structure, especially from the West, the side from where the visitor comes from. One could be then surprised, when entering inside, to find a gigantic space, with high Gothic vaults.

St Thomas church is an example of “hall” church, so called because the high of the side aisle’s vault is the same as the high of the central nave’s one. This specific disposition gives a sensation of space, at a point that one would think this church is bigger than the cathedral, while it’s not (but this one is surely more luminous).

The picture intends to show this double nature: on one hand the square format gives it the Romanesque stability, increased by the geometric stability of the quadripartite vault typical of Gothic architecture, but on the other hand it highlights as well the momentum (French = élan, whence the title) of the Gothic architecture.

This photography is a duet with Octogone, showing the crossing tower’s vault. It’s also the opposite of Voûte, both in composition (static versus dynamic) and colours (dull versus saturate).


Tools and exifs:

  • Canon EOS 450D + Samyang 14mm f/2.8
  • 14mm
  • 1/40 s.
  • f/4
  • ISO 800

More on Saint-Thomas church:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *