Fred Herzog - Elysium Cleaners – 1958

The most obvious part of this photograph is the colour.  The crispness of the white in the painted sign along with the red-orange hue of the rest of the advert contrasts so beautifully with the drab grey building.  It is just so striking that the dissimilarity of the two colours just grabs the attention of the viewer, holds onto it, refusing to let it go.  The sign dominates the scene, both in size and colour.  There is no subtlety but instead is an advertiser’s dream of garnering attention and is the visual equivalent of someone with a megaphone shouting “buy Buckingham Cigarettes!” 

But spending time with the image reveals more depth and subtlety that is initially drowned out, visually deafened by the advert.  Warm tones are always attractive, at least to me they are, and the red-orange strikes me as being quite beautiful, a hue that entices and promises warmth, comfort and enjoyment.  The red-brown circle in the middle surrounding the packet of cigarettes increases the contrast of the bright white packet, making it appear even more punchier, even more eye catching and attractive.  I must admit though, the wording seems a bit clunky to me, it doesn’t flow off the tongue but instead trips up on the last couple of words.  But with having the text in a muted yellow, a harmonising colour for the red but with the right level of tone to give just the right amount of contrast to make the text stand out but not dominate.

Once I move past the advert I am presented with the exact opposite.  There is the grey, drab building with a collection of windows.  The building itself is impressive in being so unimpressive, a building that has forsaken virtually any form of humanity and demands to be treated as just a functional space.  There is no decoration, no attempt to ease the building away from austerity and give it a hint of a soul.  It exists as an object to hold things, a collection of boxes piled together for people to use or even abuse.

However, there is an order and symmetry to the building which defies the existence it is given.  The windows are all regularly spaced, all in line with at least one other window, as if forcing a pattern onto the building and giving the carcass of functionality a sense of order.  The corners and vertical lines split the building into regular sided shapes, helping to soften the starkness that would otherwise appear as a slab of grey.  The bedraggled wooden slats vertically placed on the outside of the building also help to minimise the oppression of the grey monolith, as if breaking its despondence down into manageable parts. 

But the final words need to be spent on the other building on the left.  In the background there is a magnificent building, a tower that challenges snow topped mountain ranges and is constructed with care, foresight and grandeur.  It is a symbol of strength, of the achievement of humankind and fulfils the potential of human ingenuity, skill and creativity.  This is the last element of contrast, the majestic with the austere.