Gothic as Architecture of Light 

These photographs were taken in the church of St. Eustache in Paris. St. Eustache (1532-1633) is one of the Gothic churches in Paris which combines Gothic architecture with Renaissance elements.

When I first came to St. Eustache, I was impressed by its beauty and I wanted to create my own image of what I saw by means of photography. I believe that Gothic architecture can be better shown through light. Light is my building material, as it creates the shapes I capture. By working with light in a dynamically complex way, I built light architecture. Long exposure makes light fluid and dimensional, so that an image emerges at the transition from stillness to movement.

In Gothic symbolism light has a sacred function — it is a manifestation of God. Sunlight penetrates through bright stained-glass windows, becomes colored and transcendent and spiritualizes the inner space of the church. While contemplating stained-glass windows, a person is removed from the material, corporeal, human world and gets into the immanent, spiritual, divine world. For this purpose, windows filled with stained glass were enlarged and the number of windows was increased for better illumination of the church. 

In my project I try to show how light, which is so important for the Gothic church, can become its language.