Architecture: Photographing the different.

The deck,  complete with fire pits, bar and big screen TV, is built over the parking area at Platform 14 Apartments in Hillsboro, Oregon.

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Part of the fun in photographing architecture is working with a project that is different.  Lately I’ve been photographing lots of apartment complexes, wineries around the world and the world’s largest mosque built from mud. 

The Great Mosque in Djenné, Mali, is the largest mud brick building in the world and is considered by many architects to be the greatest achievement of the Sudano-Sahelian architectural style, obviously with Islamic influences. For scale, check out the person in the center of the photograph.

Guess the location of this chateau? France? No. If you guessed China, you are correct.  I had to include these vineyard workers with their traditional straw "Chinese" hats to clue the Western viewer that this is Chateau Changyu AFIP Global winery, one hour out of Beijing, China. This is one of the wineries featured in my new China The New Wine Frontier book.

Chateau Gevrey-Chambertin on the edge of Gevrey-Chambertin village, Burgundy, France. Many traditional French moaned when a Chinese businessman bought this run down, but important village landmark, even though he promised to restore the building.

Time Lapse Architecture

I love photographing architecture. For exteriors, I like the times when Mother Nature is in  dramatic transition, such as sunrise, sunset and edges of storms. While photographing Platform 14 apartments for Holland Residential, Mother Nature totally surprised me. Watch the time lapse.

This Ningxia winery changed my perception of Chinese craftsmanship

When you think of Chinese workmanship, what words come to mind? 

For me, after visiting wineries all over China for the past five years, the descriptors include: Bigger is better, Showy, Poor craftsmanship, Mass produced, Cheap, It won't last long.  I would not have included: hand-crafted with pride.

Yuanshi winery near Yinchuan city in Ningxia Province changed that.

All of the buildings are crafted from local stone. The businessman owner, Mr. Yuan, designed the structures himself, built the winery complex on his family farm all from stone found in the area. 

In the piercing Ningxia desert sun, I watched one craftsman chisel a design of straight lines on a granite-like building block. It will take him five days to finish carving just this one stone.

I can only imagine going into a Zen-like state to chisel this one stone for 10 hours a day.

All day long this craftsman works in the piercing Ningxia desert sun to hand carve a design in the stone. It will take him five days to finish this one building block.

One goal of the owner is to provide jobs for the local people.

Entrance to YuanShi Winery with Helan Mountains in the background.

If the owner takes this much effort to build the winery, imagine the wine. Remind me to talk about that wine in a future post.

All images international copyright 2014 Janis Miglavs.

For a more comprehensive look at the China Wine industry see my recently released book China The New Wine Frontier written in both Chinese and English. (The book already won the "Best in the World" award from Gourmand.)

To order the book in China go to Amazon China. 

To order in the USA or internationally, contact the author/photographer at janis@jmiglavs.com.

Unique Architectural Panoramas capture it all

Over the past 15 years while I’ve been photographing apartment projects, I’ve looked for ways to capture wide architectural vistas, project views and especially difficult, the entirety of small furnished spaces, like those tiny studio units. Three years ago I started creating panoramas. It took nearly two years to perfect.