Opengram 18: Undressing architecture with a barrage of likes

With nearly 1600 likes in just 10 days, the photo by Meritxell Ferrando (@meriferrando) left no chance for her 9 competitors to win the 2018 edition of the Opengram contest, which is organized annually by the 48h Open House Barcelona with the sponsorship of Núñez i Navarro. Her victory was so overwhelming that she almost tripled the 'likes' of her closest follower. The winning photo, taken inside the Progrés housing in Badalona, is to make matters worse the only one Meritxell took, who served as a volunteer in that building. "I was inspired by the history, design, and construction of the staircase that one of the architects explained to us. It wasn't hard to appreciate that this spiral staircase captured the attention as a main part of the project". It was upon understanding why that staircase was designed in that particular way and not another that she was able to identify in it a clear example of 'undressing architecture', the theme of this year. So much so that she emphasized that concept also in the copy that accompanied the photo: "The spiral staircase is stripped to dress in its own essence, recalling the inner passage through the three chimneys of the era".

At the close of this article, the second position of the contest is being disputed by the photo taken by @byannafabo at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park and by Paolo Calarco (@spaces.explorer) on the facade of the Cristalerías Planell building, one of the many photos he published for the occasion: “I posted 3-4 photos for each work visited. I think about 20-25 in total,” admits this architect by profession and vocation: “It has always been my great passion, since I was a child”. The photo in question, a corner of the facade with exposed brick that fits his preferred type of architecture: “The one that has its strength in the structure itself, in the building materials, in the essentials. The work I photographed represents perfectly that type of concept, where the beauty of the details is very clearly and powerfully manifested”. Exactly the same style he tried to capture in the other images taken during the Open House Barcelona: “In my photos, I always try to represent the spatial relationship between architecture and void, looking for geometry, symmetry, or whatever catches my attention at that moment of a particular work”.

Fuera de los puestos de honor, aunque con igual reconocimiento para ellos encontramos el resto de instagramers finalistas: @oriolgamarra, @casadevall_color, @lauralmagro, @tommi_balboa, @m_estalellay @merydoce. En este último caso, se da la casualidad que María ha conseguido colar dos de sus imágenes entre las 10 mejores de esta edición. Además de esas dos, participó con varias fotografías que pudo tomar mientras visitaba edificios como voluntaria de fotografía. Aunque no ejerce la profesión sí estudió arquitectura, hecho que considera “básico para construir mi mirada fotográfica”. En sus dos fotos finalistas una misma inspiración: “intentar captar el detalle de ese espacio a través de la luz. Encuadrarlas en formato vertical también ayuda a resumir aquello que se quiere explicar. En el caso de la fotografía de interior, la restauración de la pared cerámica y la colocación de unas ya icónicas sillas blancas y en el caso de la imagen de la fachada exterior, la distinción en el mismo muro del paso de la luz a través de una celosía de terracota”.

Another case worth mentioning is that of Tommaso Dogliotti (@tommi_balboa), an Italian architect who made it to the grand finale by taking just one photo, at the Montjuïc municipal pool, “inspired by the pool's outer space and the decay of the concrete, gray like the weather that day”.

For his part, Oriol Gamarra (@oriolgamarra) is one of the few finalists who is not related to architecture: “I simply like it, like photography, painting, or any art, especially if it's visual”. A single photo was enough to convince the jury: the spontaneous perspective of a spiral staircase inside the Clock Tower, in Barceloneta “a building in my neighborhood that I had wanted to see for a long time”. Although the snapshot is of great quality and composition, he admits that he did not prepare it too much: “it was quite spontaneous, but the light coming in through the window helped when shooting”.

To all of them, our thanks for their testimony and our most sincere recognition, as the winner will take away a night for two with breakfast included at the Hotel REC thanks to the popular vote, but all the finalists have reached this point after passing the jury's selection, which is composed of two members of the 48h Open House Barcelona: Elisenda Bonet - Director of the 48H OPEN HOUSE BCN Festival and Albert Domènech - Social Media Manager of the Festival, as well as two festival collaborators with a strong presence on Instagram and with knowledge of photography: Antonio Navarro Wijkmark – Official photographer of the Open House and Nicanor García @nicanorgarcia. The jury was rounded off by the Marketing Director of Núñez i Navarro, Daniel Zafra. It was his responsibility to evaluate the more than 1300 photos tagged with the hashtag #opengram18 and decide which, in his opinion, are the 10 that best interpret the theme of this edition.

Parallel to Opengram, another contest called Open Photo was held, in which festival visitors could capture an image of any of the buildings open during that weekend. A jury composed of two experts in architecture and a member of the organization of the 48h Open House Barcelona decided that the best photograph was the one by the instagramer @alexpekone, taken at the Hotel Granvía. In addition, Núñez i Navarro was also represented in the final by a snapshot captured at the Hotel REC by Joana Ferret.

As we have tried to reflect in this article, you don't need to be an image professional, nor do you need knowledge of architecture, nor do you need to send many photos to be eligible for the final prize. So stay tuned for the 2019 edition of Opengram and encourage yourselves to participate. Maybe in a year, you will be the protagonists of this post. A night for two with breakfast included at the Hotel REC is well worth it.