How much does your building weigh, Mr Foster?

Yesterday I went to see this documentary film. I had been looking forward to seeing it ever since I read that is was being made.

I have never met Norman Foster in person but I have photographed some of his buildings and I have indeed visited many of them.

But there are so many things, situations, coincidences and people that I can relate to on the film, that was prompted  to write this story.

Beautifully shot and narrated by Deyan Sudjic, I found the film very touching and deeply inspiring. Indeed quite moving.

It was in 1998, precisely as a result of The Observer publishing 10 page spread with my photographs of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia ( with a text by Deyan Sudjic ) few months earlier,  that Jenny Ricketts, the Picture Editor of the magazine, called me to say they had thought of me to photograph Foster´s new airport for them.

I was fortunate enough to be on the very first flight that landed in 1998 on Hong Kong´s Chep Lak Kok directly from London. Guest of Cathay Pacific I was hosted in Kowloon at a 5 Star Luxury hotel over looking Hong Kong island. My room windows were equipped with magnified crystals that allowed in detail view of the the island. One could clearly see the river, the junk boats sailing it and the amazing city scape of Hong Kong at night. Exhausted as I was after the long trip I remember siting in the window looking at Foster landmark building on the island.

I had never been a guest at a 5 star hotel before so fearful of a bill I could not afford, I politely declined when the butler knocked on my door offering my a Jeroboam of Moet Chandon with my name engraved on it. After all I had no one to celebrate the occasion with, so I thought it would be wise to have some rest before the next days work instead of getting drunk on my own.

The night of my arrival the old Kai Tak airport had been closed at 24.00 and from that time all flights would land at the new airport terminal. My flight was the first to land.

Few months later Jenny Ricketts from The Observer Magazine called again. They were producing the Night Issue. This time I would be photographing different sites for the magazine and among them Stanstead Airport. I know Stanstead well not only because I had flown in several times, but it was from there that I was to say good bye to someone who at the time was very dear to me.

The brief for the Night Issue was one of the most daring yet enticing and inspiring I have ever had from a picture editor. " Inigo, we want you to walk in when people have just left , when the doors close behind the last visitor and nothing but the warmth of the people can be felt in an almost tangible way" said Jenny.

I remember waiting into an empty National History Museum in South Kensington and the quietness and almost scary feeling when I was looking at the upside down Tyranosaurus through my Linhof.

The emptiness of Stanstead Airport at 3 am when no flights in or out were in operation. The big hall completely empty, no trolleys, no flight announcements. Nothing but silence.

Few months later I was in Bilbao this time to photograph the new Metro Norman Foster had designed in my hometown. It has to be said that though perhaps I have a fascination for the Tube in London ( after all I spent a year working tirelessly there on a personal project) Bilbao´s metro is without a doubt the most pleasant, elegant and beautiful underground I have ever visited or indeed used. Haven´t been to Moscow yet, but Judging from St Petersburg, I can say that Bilbao´s metro is simply unique.

Of the images I took of it I chose one. Just one to make it my presentation card to send it to clients. Printed it at home of a canvas art paper and sent it to several art directors and picture editors. It was the time when i was learning of the joys of being a freelance. Doing it the hard way of course. Always worried about how to find the money to end´s meet, always thinking of how to reinvent oneself, always thinking whether I am indeed a good professional, a good photographer. Nothing has changed much ever since.

A week later a I had a called from the Director of 20/20 Limited. A corporate identity and design company based in London and Sweeden.

He said to me that he had received the card and that it was a beautiful image, that he loved it and based on it had decided to commission me to photograph a new project they had completed. Therefore I was assigned to photograph all the designs, 3D, and corporate identity intervention and the newly completed Sainbury´s in Greenwich . I could not believe it. This was the biggest commission I had had and it happened because someone adored an abstract image I had taken of a stairway of  Foster´s Metro in Bilbao.

Of course these things can only happen in London and I guess in New York, but I am yet to find out.

To be continued.....