My next shoot, was located in Pisa, Italy. Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno river. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city of over 90,834 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces and various bridges across the Arno. Pisa is a very popular tourist attraction, but I was excited to see the site for myself and compare how the location conflicted with my expectations. The leaning tower is constantly talked about and remains as one the most special architectural wonders in the world. I had an expectation that perhaps the tilt was exaggerated or enhanced in photographs and was consequently keen to investigate with the naked eye.  Below is a contact sheet that presents all the photographs taken on the shoot. 

Pisa was a very small town and I was surprised by its casual and mundane appearance. Besides the Tower and main cathedral, the town is largely narrow and regular streets equipped with shops and houses. Nevertheless, in summary I really liked the town. It felt cosy and clean but filled with history and culture. There were almost no modern or out of place buildings, securing a consistent Tuscan, countryside atmosphere.

— Its important to note that these images have been selectedwith the intention to develop with illustrations. They are not individually the best photographs from the shoot, but provide the best opportunities for overlaid drawings. —

In these three photographs I have tried to capture the attractions and sites surrounding the notorious leaning tower. All these sites are located within The Square or Miracles. The Pisa tower is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex in Pisa, Italy, called Campo dei Miracoli, which means Square of Miracles. The square is not located in the center of the city as you might imagine but to the north-west of the fortified wall, almost out of the town. The square is surrounded by a beautiful green lawn where tourists and university students can lie down and relax in this setting. The square is recognized as an important center of European medieval art and one of the finest architectural complexes in the world. In the first photo I have captured a statue lying beside the leaning tower. This is a fallen angel, created by the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj. Though the statue is part of a temporary exhibit, it demonstrates the square’s abilities to showpiece art work from contemporary artists across the world. The reason I have selected this image is because I believe it will be perfect for illustration and drawing. Due to the fact that the fallen angels limbs and other body components are missing, I am provided with the opportunity to implement new ones. I can draw my own arms or perhaps implement some religious imagery throughout the background.  In the second photo, I have captured a tiled dome peaking over the top of the square walls. I discovered that this dome is situated within the square graveyard, otherwise known as the Camposanto. The graveyard is an ancient monumental cemetery set on the north side of the Square of Miracles. Begun in 1277 by the architect Giovanni de Simone, it is a rectangular structure with an inner cloister with Gothic arcades. As ancient tradition would have it, the graveyard was built on dirt carried back from the Holy Land, in particular from the place where Jesus was crucified. Within the cloister you’ll find many sarcophaguses and Roman graves, used exclusively for the burial of prestigious men, while beneath the floor are graves of the nobles of Pisa. I really like this photo, and I think its simplicity works to an advantage.  Nevertheless, I do think the exposure could be reduced a little in the editing stage and this will be executed if I decide to utilise this image in further stages of the project. The photo has a very minimalistic aesthetic as the clean and crisp sky dominates the composition. This will be ideal as it provides a blank canvas for me to illustrate upon. I really like the way that the graveyard dome is only just peaking over the square walls. Its almost a reminder that death is always a part of life and that it cannot be ignored nor forgotten. Despite the beauty and life symbolised through the inner square, death lingers within the background, watching. 

In the final photo of the set, I have captured The Baptistery of St. John. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Square of Miracles. The building is the largest baptistery in Italy and an example of the transition from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style.  The lower section is in the Romanesque style, with rounded arches, while the upper sections are in the Gothic style, with pointed arches. The Baptistery is constructed of marble, as is common in Italian architecture. As it shares the same unstable ground as the tower, the baptistery also has a slight lean of 0.6 degrees towards the cathedral. I found this baptistery really beautiful and am happy with the photo I have taken of it. There is an attractive sense of light and dark as we the find  details of the architecture pop into the foreground. I really like how the light source is coming from the left side and it consequently casts one side of the baptistery in light and the other in darkness. The sky works in cooperation with the image here as an absence of clouds and colourful blue tone makes the building more prominent within the landscape. 

Next, we have the images that focus primarily and almost entirely on the famous Leaning Tower. Tower of Pisa is more accurately referred to simply as the bell tower, or campanile. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the piazza’s crowning glory. Although only a third as high as the Washington Monument, it was a miracle of medieval engineering, probably the tallest bell towers in Europe. With the spiralling exterior columns ranged around eight stories, I found that the tower of Pisa looks like a massive wedding cake. The construction of Tower of Pisa began in August 1173 and continued for about 200 years due to the onset of a series of wars.The top of the leaning tower of Pisa is about 17 feet off the vertical and the tower is also slightly curved from the attempts by various architects to keep it from leaning more or falling over.Many ideas have been suggested to straighten the Tower of Pisa, including taking it apart stone by stone and rebuilding it at a different location. In the 1920s the foundations of the tower were injected with cement grouting that has stabilized the tower to some extent. In the first image, I have tried to capture the tower individually. Although the horizon line needs to be straightened, I like the image and think it would be suitable for illustration. The tower holds a cylindrical shape that exists frequently in everyday life and ordinary objects. This will make it easy to transform the tower into something mundane. The next two photos share a nice sense of depth and perspective. There is a clear perception of dimension with immerses the viewer. Both photos are essentially the same, except one is landscape in orientation and the other is portrait. The benefit of the portrait is that we can get a complete spectacle of the tower, allowing us to see its peak. As a result, I prefer this version of the image. In addition to this, there is also a small pigeon sat upon the statue that is more identifiable within the first photo. In the final photograph, I have tried to capture both the Tower and the Cathedral. Pisa Cathedral is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Square of Miracles in Pisa.  It is a notable example of Romanesque architecture. Construction on the cathedral began in 1063 by the architect Buscheto, and expenses were paid using the spoils received fighting against the Muslims in Sicily in 1063. The church was erected outside Pisa’s high middle age-era walls, to show that Pisa that was so powerful, it had no fear of being attacked. I like this photo and feel like it a complete overview of the square and what to expect from Pisa. The marble of both buildings beautifully reflects the natural sunlight rendering both sites as bright and powerful in lighting.