For over two decades, Bavarian photographer Markus Brunetti has traveled across Europe to capture basilicas, monasteries, and other ecclesiastical landmarks. Together with collaborator Betty Schöner, Brunetti photographs each structure extensively, using a converted firetruck as a mobile photo lab. They take thousands of images over several years to document each site in meter-by-meter detail.
Through detailed editing, Brunetti combines these images into high-resolution composite views. He adjusts perspectives to present perfectly aligned facades, offering a view distinct from the angled perspectives seen from street level.
Exhibition details
Santiago de Compostela, Catedral (2009-2024), archival pigment print, image 83 3/4 x 54 1/4 inches
Brunetti’s current exhibition, Facades IV at Yossi Milo, features his recent photographic works. One notable piece, “Roma, Basilica di San Pietro,” was started in 2007. According to the gallery, Brunetti and Schöner visited St. Peter’s Basilica seven times over 19 years to capture this iconic image, challenged by the site’s grandeur and popularity. His technique of presenting perfectly aligned facades is explored in the article Design in Motion: Photographing Architecture and Interiors with Movement.
The photographs, printed at up to seven-and-a-half feet tall, pay homage to the featured buildings, many of which have stood for centuries. The gallery states, “The result exceeds the possibilities of any single photograph, creating works that stand as monuments in and of themselves.”
Facades IV is on display until June 20 in New York City.
