Pygmalion Karatzas
Architectural, Fine Art & Commercial Photography

Introduction to 'Morphogenesis - Architectural Icons from Europe'

This collection is part of an integral / AQAL photographic vision, studying and exploring various styles and approaches to architectural photography, aiming to combine a respectful representation of exterior realities with a meaningful expression of our interiority, and to bridge fine art and commercial photography. Photography has always been as much about discovering the personal and transpersonal vision of the artist, as much as it has been about mastering the technical aspects of each photographic genre. Morphogenesis is an open- ended journey that started with my architectural and urban design studies and got regenerated with my love with photography.

Volume one of the Morphogenesis series started in February 2013 with a road trip from Rome to Basel to Frankfurt. Visiting and capturing contemporary architecture and urban scenes in both an artistic and editorial manner. It has been an exploration of the architecture itself as much as the photographic medium, as the buildings were visited for the first time and the capturing and processing techniques were new. The title is a tribute and reference to the mysterious and fascinating process of morphogenesis as postulated by biologist Rupert Sheldrake.

Joseph Rosa, chief curator at the US National Building Museum, noted that photography has become the lens through which we observe and analyze the evolution of architecture. My work aims to inspire people to not only view it as a two dimensional image representation but to motivate and inspire them to experience it more comprehensively. Both long exposure photography and a fine art approach, and commercial / editorial architectural photography, make people slow down, observe buildings closer, do research and field survey, revisit locations under different light and weather conditions, and by doing so enriching their understanding and awareness of the built environment.

A second road trip in Europe, starting from Scotland then Germany and then Italy took place in July 2014, which gave me the opportunity to visit more buildings in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Modena. In the first edition of vol.3 the work from the second trip was published separately. In this revised edition I have combined the material from the two trips in Europe in one volume.

Pygmalion Karatzas


Architectural & Fine Art Photographer
B.Sc. Architecture


M.Sc. Urban Design