Eduardo Alarcon Finds a New and Exciting Perspective on Las Banderas, “The Gateway to San Pedro Garza Garcia”

Eduardo Alarcon is taking us on a trip to Nuevo Leon, Mexico today to see Las Banderas – an urban sculpture designed by Fernando Gonzalez Gortazar. Las Banderas, which translates to “the flags,” serves as the gateway to San Pedro Garza Garcia and is the final piece of San Pedro’s Emblem urban intervention.

Eduardo shared that he passes through the sculpture almost every day. It’s a special project for him, which he decided to explore through a personal project. “To my surprise,” he says “I discovered things you can not appreciate passing by in your car. I did the shoot to showcase the scale and proportion of the structure. I wanted to discover and highlight the sculptural aspects of the space and the relationship between the user and the project.”

Eduardo visited Las Banderas three times. “The first day of the shoot there was an overcast sky and I was trying out a new camera that is mirrorless. I activated the focus peaking function, and coming from an optical viewfinder, I didn’t hit the optimal focus in some pictures so I had to retake some of them – no biggie!

On the flip side, the next day I had some wonderful summer late afternoon light to work with and not-so-busy traffic.

The third day was the drone´s turn. It was a little windy but the light conditions were perfect for some good images,” he tells.

I love this next shot. The winding pathway, the greenery and mountains poking out in the distance. I love the inclusion of the street signs below to give some context. The shadows are great and the scene is dynamic.

The symmetry in this next frame is fun and almost feels like we are looking at an optical illusion. Again, great shadows and light add to the scene, and create for a very cool photograph.

Another favorite of mine, I love the mountains and clouds perfectly framed by the sculpture here. It’s a great testament to Eduardo’s goal of showing Las Banderas in a way that can’t be seen by car.

Great quality of light here! We see the shapeliness of the structure and its mix of curves and rectilinear elements.

Eduardo’s vignettes communicate the many details and forms found throughout the sculpture.

“This image was made in a mirrorless camera with a 24mm tilt shift lens and it depicts perfectly the name of the sculpture ‘Las Banderas’ (the flags),” Eduardo explains. “It shows the functional and the formal aspects of the piece in a monumental scale.

The challenge with making the image was the backlight that was sorted out by a bracketed exposure and merging them in postproduction. I also had to remove some traffic cones and objects that were in the road.”

Las Banderas at dusk is an equally gorgeous scene. Illuminated intentionally by practical lights as well as by the cars in the road, we see the forms in literally a new light. I appreciate how Eduardo included light trails from the headlights of passing cars. Very nice and not overdone!

Many thanks to Eduardo for submitting his beautiful personal project in to us! I’m so glad he took the time to explore and share this sculpture. It’s a great reminder to stop and explore the architecture around you, and who knows, you might find a new and exciting perspective!

You can find Eduardo’s work on the web at www.ealarcon.com and on Instagram @ealarcon.fotoarq.

If you have a project you’d like to be considered for Project of the Week, you can submit it here.