Waterpower: Fotografien von Christian Helme

Christian Helmle’s photographs have a remarkable beauty. He looks for subject matters in architecture and technology, but the deeply impressive and powerful shapes of his buildings, some of which are gigantic, are really expressed through their connection with the landscape. His power stations, dam walls and reservoirs represent power, might, riches-and aesthetics. A wide variety of different 20th-century architectonic trends can be seen in his exploration of power plant buildings in the Alpine region, which is divided between the four main catchment areas: that of the Danube, the Po, the Rhine and the Rhone. Palace architecture and the Heimatschutz movement can be seen here alongside New Objectivity and the architecture of the 1950s.