Vertical Outlandishness

While I don’t consider myself to be an architectural photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I am drawn to compelling design regardless of function. As a result I am occasionally asked to photograph architecture. Most recently, as part of an extensive campaign for Strawberry Frog, New York, I had the opportunity to shoot Capital Gate and Ethiad Towers in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

In a city known for its vertical outlandishness and neck-craning beauty, there may not be a skyscraper more outlandish than Capital Gate (pictured above). Known as the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi, it was constructed INTENTIONALLY to incline eighteen degrees - versus the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which only tilts five-and-a-half degrees as the result of UNINTENTIONALLY poor foundation. Guinness World Records certified Capital Gate as the world's “farthest manmade leaning building.” Crazy.

While in Abu Dhabi, I also was commissioned to photograph the Etihad Towers above. A complex of buildings with five towers, it probably is most recognizable to Americans as the filming location of the Fast and Furious 7 movie in which Vin Diesel’s character steals a Lykan HyperSport and drives it through three of its towers. Nuts.