Amin Chouikh Architecture Photography Portfolio

PORTFOLIO

Amin Chouikh

Table of Contents

Architecture Photography Publications Master Thesis

Olympic City, Clement Cacoub

My

name

am

an

pher

is

Amin

archi tect

currentl y

Chouikh.

and

li v ing

I

photogra-

in

Germany.

Besides being exhibi ted in national and international

exhibi tions ,

including

La

Biennale di Venezia in 2017, the photo graphs in my por tfolio have been pub lished

in

numerous

Archi tectural

and

Ar t Magazines in Tunisia and around the wor ld , including Iddeco ( Tunisia), Archibat

( Tunisia),

and

Brownbook

(Dubai ).

Germany -Master degree in architecture from Bauhaus Dessau.

-Featured In the Stuttgarter Zeitung.

-Collaborated with the Goethe Institute on several projects.

Italy, Venice -Tunisian participation in the Venice Biennalle in 2017.

France, Paris -Got Invited in 2019 to Photograph One of Frances most renowned Real estate Companies, Compagnie de Phalsbourg.

Tunisia, Tunis -Worked with several architecture magazines including Archibat and Idedeco.

-Exhibitions at Tunisia’s most prestigious art galleries and theaters, including AGORA, LA Marsa, and Rio Theater.

Dubai -Official photographer of BROWNBOOK Magazine in Tunisia.

ARC H I T E C TUR E

Congress Palace

Kahia Hotel

Phalsbourg Real Estate

Tunisian Lybian Bank

Client: Cacoub Foundation

Client: Leila Ben Gacem

Client: Raoul Journo

Client: Mimita Architects

Architect: Clement Cacoub

Architect: Zoubeir Mouhli

Architect: Gianni Ranaulo

Architect: Ajmi Mimita

PHO T O G R APHY

Gropius Residence

BAUHAUS Dessau

Ben Gacem Hotel

Casino Hammam Lif

Client: Bauhaus Foundation

Client: Bauhaus Foundation

Client: Mouhli Architects

Client: Goethe Institut

Architect: Bruno Fioretti

Architect: Walter Gropius

Architect: Zoubeir Mouhli

Architect: Hussein Bey

1 Congress Palace Bizerte Convention Centre is regarded as one of the greatest icons of modernist architecture in Tunisia and Bizerte.

Clement Cacoub, a French Tunisian architect, designed the building in the 1960s.

In 2017, the building was renovated, and I was commissioned by the city of Bizerte to photograph the result of the restoration.

I was instructed to create black and white images to honor the era when the building was constructed.

Picture of the conference hall with the upper structure.

Date: 11.07.2018 Camera: Nikon D800 Lens: Nikkor 24-105 Light effect made with slow shutter speed and slight camera movement

The theater has a capacity of 1800 seats.

The restoration project took 3 years to com The project is considered one of the most

mplete.. t important works of architect Clement Cacoub.

Main Facade of the building.

The architecture has 2 aspects to it, the first is modernist like the main facade, and the second is futuristic like the interior design of the theater.

Stairs leading to the first floor.

2 Kahia Guest House The Dar Kahia was restored in 2014 by Zoubeir Mouhli Architects. Its located in the heart of the Medina of Tunis and offers 8 luxurious rooms.

The building was originally a house owned by rich Tunisian aristocrats, the restoration took more than four years, I was commissioned to photograph the results.

Photo taken in the patio showing The patio let in natural light to illu Camera: Sony A7 III Lens: Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art

g how the spaces upstairs are distrubied. uminate the rooms.

Photo of the moucharabiya, an architectural element that lets the light into a common pull out the maximum of details.

space or a large room. Knowing when and how to photograph it is essential to

3 Compagnie de Phalsbourg Paris Compagnie de Phalsbourg is a French company that specializes in real estate.

The building I was commissioned to photograph is located in the heart of Paris and was formerly a series of shops. The building has no exterior facades and is only illuminated by a large opening at the top.

Photo of the main Date: 12.08.2019

Camera: Sony A7 Lens: Sigma 35m

n entrance behind a colored glass sliding door.

7III mm f1.4 ART

View of the central space and the opening on top.

The project has in total two floors.

Picture showing the glass wall letting light come from the central space into one of the corridors.

4 TL BANK The Tunisian Lybian bank has been designed by one of Tunisia’s most famous architects, Ajmi Mimita.

It is located in the heart of Tunisia’s capital city, the construction was completed in 2017, and I was commissioned to document the architecture days before its opening.

Date: 16.08.2017 Camera: Nikon D800 Lens: Nikkor 24-105

Photos of the interiors at the time where the shadows are projected from the metal structure in the roof.

GROPIUS RESIDENCE DESSAU

I was assigned to photograph the Gropius residence as a part of my studies by Dr.Prof Rudolf Lückmann.

This iconic house was destroyed during world war two and was redesigned by Bruno Fioretti architects.

I photographed the house with a large-format camera using a black and white 9 by 12 cm film.

Camera: LINHOF KARDAN GT 9*12 Lens: Schneider XL 90mm F5,6 Film: Fomapan 100 Developper: Ilford ID11

BAUHAUS DESSAU

As part of my master’s thesis, I photographed this classical modernist icon for the Bauhaus foundation. The building was being restored by Nüthen Restaurierungen at the time.

I also used a large-format camera, the same camera that professional photographers used in the 1920s and 1930s to capture architecture.

Camera: LINHOF KARDAN GT 9*12 Lens: Schneider XL 90mm F5,6 Film: Fomapan 100 Developper: Ilford ID11

7 Ben Gacem Guest House Dar Ben Gacem is a guest house that was built around the 17th century, by the Aoun family, who lived in the same Dar for 300 years and were well known master artisan perfumers in the Medina. In 2006 the Dar was sold to the Ben Gacem family, which converted it into a room boutique hotel.

Dar Ben Gacem is located on ‘Rue du Pasha’, one of the most important alleys of the Medina of Tunis. Dar Bacha was the seat of the Pasha, formerly the head of the county of Tunis, appointed by the Ottoman Sultan.

During the early period of the Ottomans’ arrival in Tunis, from 1574 until the end of the 16th century, he held the highest political rank in the country

Date: 16.08.2017 Camera: Sony A7III Nikon D5200 Lens: Sigma 35mm f1,4 ART Nikkor 18-55

During the day of the shoot, the weather was cloudy, the light gently washed over everything creating a low-contrast scene with exteriors are usually blind facades with very tiny windows with one or two entry doors.

h a melancholic atmosphere. Photographing this kind of old Tunisian Dars means that I would only photograph interiors, the

8 Casino Hammam-Lif Hotel Casino de Hammam Lif is a hotel and casino located in the city of Hammam Lif in Tunisia .

It was built at the end of the 19th century , under the French protectorate , in a Moorish style.

In 2013 , following the flight of its operator who did not pay a due of 250,000 dinars to the local municipality, and given the restoration costs which amounted to 750,000 dinars, the building was closed and abandoned.

On October 2017 i was commissioned by the Goethe Institute to photograph the building and to conduct photography workshops for the local community inside the casino.

Photograph of one of the master bedrooms.

Date: 16.08.2017 Camera: Nikon D700 Lens: Nikkor 24-105

Hammam-Lif casino is what I considered a tragedy both culturally and architecturally. This jewel, as Iddeco magazine called it, was ignored by both the social and political sectors of Hammam-Lif.

As a result of my photographs appearing online and in printed magazines, a lot of Tunisian architects and intellects were shocked to see such a magnificent building in such a bad state. In this case, photography led people to “see” the obvious, proving how important photography is for pinpointing urban and cultural issues.

P u b l i c

Journal Of the Medina-Tunis

BROWNBBOK Magazine-Dubai

Archibat Magazine-

Founded in 2015

Founded in 2014

Founded in 19997

Role: Co-founder and head photographer

Role: Main photographer and editor in Tunisia

Role: Photographer and edit Interview architects Write architecture artic

c a t i o n s

-Tunis

tor

cles

Holma Magazine-Paris

Idedeco Magazine-Tunis

Founded in 2017

Founded in 19997

Role: Photgrapher and editor

Role: Photographer and editor Interview architects

Journal of The Medina

In 2015 I Co-founded the Journal of The Medina, a quarterly newspaper that documents the architectural and cultural heritage of the old medina in Tunis.

For almost three years, I was the head photographer and also heavily involved with the design process.

This project was financed by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.

BROWNBOOK Brownbook is a bimonthly magazine dedicated to art, architecture, culture and travel from the Middle East and North Africa. i was their photographer in Tunisia and i helped cover diffrent subjects from brutalist architecture to Tunisias first femal taxi driver.

On the cover of this issue of Brownbook, I photographedwater engineer and designer Amin Draoui.

I photographed all of Brownbook’s projects in Tunisia, not only architectural projects but also social and cultural ones.

Here are just a few examples of the work I’ve done with them.

Monia Rouissi: First and only Tunisian taxi driver.

Leila Ben Gacem: Former biomedical is saving the traditions of the Tunis Medina.

AB ARC H I T E C TUR E BAT I M A RC H I BAT

ARCHITECTURE BATIMENT COMMUNICATION specializes in advertising and communication. Currently, it has 2 magazines, ARCHIBAT and IDDECO. Over the course of eight months, I worked for the two publications as a photographer and editor, and my photograph was featured on the cover of ARCHIBAT. Archibat is one of Tunisia’s most renowned architectural magazines.

BC, M E N T C O M M UN IC AT IO N T- I DDEC O

M a s t e r

T h e s i s

WHAT ARE THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HOW ARCHITECTURE IS PERCEIVED AND PHOTOGRAPHED?

Bauhaus Dessau Case Study

First supervisor: Dr. Prof, Rudolf Lückmann Second supervisor: Prof, Lu Yili

The thesis mainly examines how architecture is perceived and photographed, and is divided into three parts.

In the first part, I studied the history of architecture photography and its evolution over time.

The second part consists of an analysis of ten participants who took photographs around the Bauhaus site. I followed the participants to document their movement, where they stopped to take photographs, and what paths they took. According to the study, there are several factors that influence how architecture is photographed and perceived In the third and final section, I present a brief look at what kind of projects and photography workshops could be conducted using the results of the thesis.

One example of the track that one of the participants took while photographing the Bauhaus.

Starting point: This is where the participant takes the camera and starts The direction and path that the participant took Position of the sun at the time of the shooting

Position where the participant stopped and took a picture The direction where the participant pointed his camera Favorite pictures of the participant

Where the participant decided to stop the tour Intersection of 2 paths

The figures represent the different paths that participants took when they photographed the Bauhaus.

It’s broken down into two types of paths, one is closed, meaning the participant toured the entire building, and the other is still op participant did not tour the entire building, one reason for that is that the starting point of where the participant is often what dicta they will take rather unconsciously.

pen, meaning that the ates the type of path

In the following figures, participants’ favorite perspectives are represented by their position (blue circle) and direction (red triangle).

The rationale for choosing these perspectives will be explained later in the thesis.

In this figure, the small eye icons represent the spots where participants stopped and took pictures, and the red rectangles represent obstacles that prevented the participants from taking pictures.

Additional analysis and explanations can be found in the thesis.

Amin Chouikh Website: www.aminchouikh.com amin@chouikh.com 0049 1522 230 4391