Montreal In Pictures

October 24 2012

A new art installation/sculpture was inaugurated at Place Ville Marie this past September in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the iconic office tower complex and underground shopping mall.

The sculpture called Autoportrait (self-portrait) was created by Montreal artist Nicolas Baier and is situated next to the entrance of 5 Place Ville Marie above the shopping plazza. The sculpture is made of polished metal and is a photo-sculpture depicting a boardroom, complete with table, chairs and projection screen, plus a multitude of office accessories including; laptop, coffee cup, binder, waste basket, cell phone etc.

Being polished metal and behind glass the sculpture wasn’t the easiest to photograph, but I didn’t help myself by the fact I was there at around 5 when the light was beginning to fade and I only had my wide angle with me. I would have liked to get some close ups of the various items, but will have to go back another day.

It’s a fun sculpture and given the modern design I went for a more radical post processed look than I normally do. Starting with 3 bracketed shots for each image, I tone mapped using Photomatix and then made the final adjustments in Lightroom.

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 250 – 20mm – f5.6 – 1/15 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 1000 – 10mm – f9.5 – 1/30 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 250 – 11mm – f4.2 – 1/20 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 1000 – 10mm – f9.5 – 1/20 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 250 – 11mm – f9.5 – 1/6 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 250 – 20mm – f5.6 – 1/15 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Autoportrait by Nicolas Baier
ISO 250 – 14mm – f4.8 – 1/15 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I went a bit overboard with the processing on this last one, but the fact you could hardly differentiate individual elements within the image I thought what the heck and I actually quite liked the vibrant result.