Markus Brunetti's Monumental Photos Venerate European Ecclesiastical Landmarks

"For a little more than two decades, Bavarian photographer Markus Brunetti has scoured Europe for its most impressive basilicas, monasteries, and other striking ecclesiastical landmarks. Working closely with collaborator Betty Schöner, with whom he travels around the continent in a firetruck that has been converted to a photo lab, the pair snap thousands of images of each structure in meter-by-meter detail, often over the course of several years."

"Through a meticulous editing process that includes layering and arranging each shot into composite images, Brunetti creates precise, high-resolution views of the facades that we never experience in real life. Perspective is skewed so that the ornate temples and cathedrals' entrances are perfectly straight. Rather than the oblique view we usually get-think of how tall structures look when viewed from the street, with their base appearing wider and the top growing gradually narrower-we're confronted with a striking one-point perspective."

""Roma, Basilica di San Pietro," for example, was initiated in 2007. "Brunetti and Schöner returned to St. Peter's Basilica seven times over nineteen years," the gallery says. "With each survey, they grew closer to realizing this grand image-a particular challenge given that it is one of the largest and most visited churches in the world.""

"Printed at an impressively large scale-up to seven-and-a-half feet tall-the photos venerate these buildings, many of which are centuries old. "The result exceeds the possibilities of any single photograph, even at the highest possible resolution, creating works that stand as monuments in and of themselves," the gallery says."

Markus Brunetti has spent more than two decades photographing Europe’s basilicas, monasteries, and other ecclesiastical landmarks. Working with Betty Schöner, he travels across the continent in a converted firetruck photo lab and captures thousands of images of each structure in meter-by-meter detail, often over several years. A careful editing process layers and arranges shots into composite images that correct perspective so entrances appear perfectly straight. The resulting views use one-point perspective, replacing the oblique street-level perspective where buildings taper toward the top. A solo exhibition, Facades IV, presents recent portraits printed at very large scale, including a long-term project at St. Peter’s Basilica.

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