Architectural photographer Marc Goodwin has documented 12 architecture workspaces in Vienna, Austria, as part of an ongoing series capturing studios across the world.

Goodwin, who is the founder of photography studio Archmospheres, went behind the scenes at the Viennese architecture studios following his previous trips to workspaces in cities including Los Angeles, Frankfurt and Berlin.

“From the Viennese Secession of the 1890s to Red Vienna from 1918 to 1934, the city looms large in the imagination of anyone interested in art and architecture,” Goodwin told Dezeen.

“I wanted to know what it was like there today. And this series has been a great way to do that.”

After photographing the twelve studios, Goodwin said he was surprised to discover the city had a relaxed atmosphere compared to others he has visited for his series.

“You’d be mad not to look for a job there,” Goodwin said. “The city is cheap and easy to move around in, the projects are good – especially innovative residential – the atmosphere is relaxed.”

“I’m desperate to move there,” he continued. “Also, the last thing I saw upon completing the final shoot was the flak tower in the Augarten, which I was totally unprepared for. It blew me away. Vienna is full of surprises.”

Goodwin’s images in Vienna document studios including Illiz Architektur, Shibukawa Eder Architects and Nonconform. He said that the city’s relaxed atmosphere was also prevalent within the workspaces.

“I have to say it felt more laid back than many of the offices in the previous series I shot,” he explained.

“They have a good sense of humour about themselves,” he continued. “Shibukawa Eder Architects told me Vienna had just been voted the unfriendliest city or the worst city to live in for the fifth year running. They were killing themselves with laughter!”

Scroll down for an exclusive look inside 12 architecture studios across Vienna:

AllesWirdGut

In this space since: 2013
Number of members of staff: 70
Size: 881 square metres
Building’s history: office building

Architects Collective

In this space since: 2018
Number of members of staff: 38
Size: 375 square metres
Building’s history: built in 1898 former furniture manufacturer

Illiz architektur

In this space since: 2022
Number of members of staff: 12
Size: 162 square metres
Building’s history: built in 1893 by Karl Stiegler

Franz & Sue

In this space since: 2022
Number of members of staff: 100
Size: 504 square metres
Building’s history: built and designed by Franz & Sue

ULrike Tinnacher

In this space since: 1970
Number of members of staff: 3
Size: approximately 40 square metres

Shibukawa Eder Architects

In this space since: 2018
Number of members of staff: 10
Size: 160 square metres
Building’s history: built in 1989 former residential building

Feld72 Architekten

In this space since: 2017
Number of members of staff: 35
Size: 339 square metres

Schenker Salvi Weber Architekten

In this space since: 2009
Number of members of staff: 50
Size: 600 square metres

SOLID Architecture

In this space since: 2019
Number of members of staff: 3
Size: 120 square metres
Building’s history: built in 2019

PLOV Architekten

In this space since: 2019
Number of members of staff: 22
Size: 178 square metes
Building’s history: new building, built in 2019

Nonconform

In this space since: 2009
Number of members of staff: 42
Size: 265 square metres
Building’s history: built in 1858 formerly a printshop

Querkraft Architekten zt

In this space since: 2014
Number of members of staff: 45
Size: 740 square metres
Building’s history: built in 1874 and functioned as an ancillary building for the Vienna stock exchange

When we came across some of the photos from Melissa Schriek’s new book Ode, we initially thought it was a documentation of some sort of duo yoga or callisthenics. The subjects are found doing backbends and hanging from railings, in what has to be the perfect conditions for a head rush. But, amidst all the playing and often synchronised movement, a lesser documented theme is at the heart of the photographer’s unconventional series – female friendship.

Melissa first came to photography through her father, whose passion has made a lasting impression on her throughout the years. “He often emphasised the importance of capturing memories for posterity,” she tells us. He then gifted her a camera for a school trip at just eight years old, and was so amazed by the results that he decided it was time for a permanent one. The photographer emphasises the following years as being “truly transformative,” as her camera often saved her from boredom, acting as a gateway to exploring beyond her comfort zone. “Ever since then, I’ve lived my life through the lens of a camera. I often find myself yearning for new places and contemplating the idea of living and documenting in different locations. To me, a camera represents a sense of home that transcends physical spaces,” she adds.

Melissa’s creative pursuits started within the worlds of dance and gymnastics. Leaving an obvious mark on her, Ode can be seen as a continuation of her love for exploring gestures, body language and performance. As we peruse through the series, childhood games come back to mind – falling back as your confidant catches you, and hand-clapping games that create a mirror between two friends. “I firmly believe that within relationships we all adopt distinct roles, and these roles can evolve depending on the individuals and the circumstances,” she tells us. Heavily relying on the language of the body to express these themes, she observed the natural movements of the women featured throughout, before amplifying and reinterpreting their actions to convey all that she sees in their friendship. “I believe it all serves as a powerful visual metaphor for the essence of their relationships.”

It’s been 28 years since news and professional photographer John Gaines captured images of women working the farm for a special Hawk Eye section.

“Rural Women: Partners on the Farm,” dated Nov. 19, 1995, includes black and white photo essays by Gaines with stories by then-Hawk Eye reporter Criss Wilson, that mainly follow Primrose hog and crop farmer Janice McCarty, and Fort Madison dairy and crop farmer Sherri Hartson.

Gaines decided to feature the changing face of rural women, based on a colleague’s idea for a news story.

He spent months on the McCarty and Hartson farms, shadowing and photographing the work glove, denim and boot-wearing women feeding and chasing hogs, cleaning manure from a child’s feet and a from holding pen, doing the morning milking, and, home chores like cooking lunch and navigating toys scattered in a playroom carrying an armful of laundry.

Gaines, a self-proclaimed “city boy,” in the 1995 newspaper tab summed up his observations — “The dirty hands, manure on their pants, working day and night, year-round with little time off.”

For his art exhibit called “Women: Fabric of the Farm,” Gaines will retell the extraordinary stories of these remarkable women — with whom he has reconnected — once more through his poignant, raw, inspirational images, for Vice Night from 5-8 p.m. Friday at the Art Center of Burlington. Admission is free.

To prepare for the event, Gaines brought out the long-stored color negative film, and rescanned some of the photos.

“The new show will be in color rather than the old black and white,” he explained.

“The editorial, documentary-like nature of John’s work is an ideal fit for a subject like this. His years of experience and his mastery of the art of storytelling, and ability to authentically capture real people, in their genuine environment is always so poignant and compelling,” said Elizabeth Pappas, executive director of the Art Center.

“We’re excited to delve into this topic, and these beautiful stories Friday night,” she said.

The Vice Night show will display parts of the original Hawk Eye tab, and in addition the display will feature new photos from the Blue Knoll Dairy Farm, the last remaining dairy in Des Moines County, photos from the Des Moines County Fair, future and past, and portraits taken at the 2023 fair.

For the show’s rural theme, “I found some really cool barn wood at the Preservation Station to display the pictures,” he said.

For that spring, summer and fall of 1995, Gaines out of necessity bought his own farm boots that unbeknownst to him at the time would prove once again invaluable during the floods of 2008 and 2015.

He still owns the boots that he recently wore to take recent photos, and will display those at the Art Center.

In the middle of one night all those years ago, he quickly grabbed the boots and headed out to the Hartson farm for compelling photos captured for the assignment.

“I got a call at home and Sherri said ‘Hey, we’ve got a calf coming out. Come down if you want pictures.’ I had to race off to the barn, from Burlington to Fort Madison, and got there and they pulled the calf out, incubated it, got it good to go and so I kind of captured all of that. It’s all part of the cycle of life, and those pictures will be there,” said Gaines.

Gaines returned to Primrose and got a picture of McCarty with family members.

The McCarty’s, he said, are semi-retired, but now are helping their son on the farm.

He spoke with Hartson on the phone and also took a newer portrait of her.

“She’s not farming anymore. They got out of the dairy farming business. She lives in the family home where she grew up,” he said, noting that she now works for Lee County.

After all these years, Gaines still appreciates the experience he wrote about in a blurb in the 1995 Hawk Eye feature, with the two women who he said “were so generous with their time.”

He wanted to portray the importance of farmers to the whole state and country, and he believes the women truly helped bring that to the forefront.

“While documenting these two women throughout the spring, summer and fall I acquired an affectionate appreciation for the hard work that occurs in the rural community … I thank them for giving us a looking-glass view of their farm lives,” he said.

Friday’s event will feature music by Eric Pettit and Ed Mansheim, and beer, wine and charcuterie for sale.

The photographs also will be available for purchase.

Parking will be available in front of the Art Center. The intersection of Jefferson and Third streets is blocked, but people can enter through the main entrance on Jefferson Street or the side entrance on the south side of Third Street.on

“I’m getting old,” cackles Michael Kenna, when I ask how it feels to look back on 50 years in the photography business. “Much wiser,” he says, before cackling again. “I wish.” I’m talking to the English photographer over video from his office in Seattle, Washington, where he is surrounded by filing cabinets and binders stuffed with some of the 175,000 negatives that are his life’s work. Over the past half-century, Kenna has marked himself as one of the world’s most distinctive and influential landscape photographers, known for minimalist compositions often featuring otherworldly light.

This year marks half a century since he started working as a professional photographer, and he’s ringing in the occasion with a book, Michael Kenna: Photographs & Stories. It features 51 images, one for each year of his career. “We were going to call it Michael Kenna (1973-2023): Photographs & Stories,” he explains. “But I’m not dead yet, and including dates gives a different idea.”

Kenna turns 70 in November. “I’m fine about being my age and staying in the game for 50 years. When you start, you have no idea you can maintain your passionate hobby and survive.”

Born in the industrial town of Widnes, Cheshire, Kenna studied at St Joseph’s College, a seminary boarding school in Lancashire, with the intention of becoming a Catholic priest. But the image, rather than the Word, turned out to be his true calling, with Kenna enrolling at Banbury School of Art in Oxfordshire in 1972. A year later, he says, “I began doing semi-professional jobs: working for magazines, making record covers, book covers … I was working pro, as well as being a student, as one does to survive.”

Kenna moved to San Francisco in the late 70s, and has lived in the US since, relocating to Seattle in 2007. His subjects over the past five decades have been remarkably varied: English power stations; US car factories; the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea; Catholic confessional booths; Buddha statues.

But Kenna’s core focus is natural landscapes, using his film cameras to create meditative black-and-white images of trees, coasts, snow, bodies of water and lone structures. “I try to photograph the unseen,” he says. “It goes back to my early religious background of training to be a priest, of living with silence, discipline and prayer; seeing the light on the altar and believing wholeheartedly there was a God, an unseen presence around us that’s very powerful.” Although his religious beliefs have since changed, “I still believe there’s an unseen presence,” he says. “When I photograph anything, I’m trying to look beyond and below the surface.”

Likening his approach to a friendship deepening over time, Kenna repeatedly revisits countries and locations, including Italy, France and, particularly, Japan. “Nothing ever feels like it’s closed, finished, or like the end of the book,” he tells me. “It feels like there are always possible new chapters.” Japan is a key inspiration, a place he’s returned to often over the years, the wintry north especially providing the stark landscapes captured in many of his best-known images. He first visited in 1987. “I was blown away by the aesthetics, the spiritual and religious aspects, the curiosity of people, friendliness, cleanliness,” he says. “I went up to Hokkaido, in the north, in the middle of winter, and it looked to me like an absolutely stark sumi-e ink painting, a completely white canvas with Kanji characters marked on it. I’ve been in love with the place ever since.”

He recently exhibited new work from Japan at SOL LDN and he’ll be returning to Japan in 2024, to not only photograph but also perform – by invitation – at a major karaoke concert in Asahikawa. “There’s a bar I go to every time I visit Hokkaido called Oak. To start, I wasn’t very good. But my singing has improved.”

I’ve spoken to Kenna several times over the years, and he always strikes me as very Zen – a man who has figured out that the secret of life has more to do with slowing down and appreciating nature than rushing around or arguing with strangers online. “I don’t spend much time stressed out at my desk, hunched over a computer. I’m not a fan of social media – I don’t have a Twitter account. I spend a lot of time walking, searching, breathing fresh air. Photography is a very nourishing profession. It’s very meditational. I like to take my time and enjoy the company of my subject matter. For me, it’s about doing something you love doing. That’s the essence of life.”

Minimal impacts: six photos by Michael Kenna

Field of Sticks, Hokkaido, Japan, 2023
“Hokkaido makes a lot of white wine. My guide took me to a wine-making area. This scene was by the side of the road. I jumped out, walked into the field and photographed. The light in Hokkaido is sometimes so stark because of all the snow, so I had to figure out how to make an exposure that took into account the shadows and the highlights. Sticks in fields are one of my passions.”

Wave, Scarborough, Yorkshire, UK, 1981 (main image)
“I remember crossing the Pennines and picking up an Irish hitchhiker, says Michael Kenna. “At Scarborough, he jumped out and said: ‘The luck of the Irish to you.’ It was very prescient. As I walked along the harbour, a wave kept hitting the wall. In this photo, it was like the wave had raised itself up, ready to drop. I hadn’t realised how close it was to Hokusai’s famous Great Wave.”

Stone Pine Tunnel, Abruzzo, Italy, 2016
“I was in Abruzzo and went into a grove of stone pines. I could see it was a beautiful tunnel. The idea of light at the end is always wonderful. I love leading the viewer into an image without there being a destination. But the intrigue for this image is the darkness up in the canopy, which I didn’t see at the time. It has a strange, otherworldly aspect.”

Torii, Study 4, Honshu, Japan, 2007
“I’ve photographed torii gates, which are often at the entrances of Shinto shrines, since 2001. Shintoism is an animistic religion: they believe the gods reside in the landscape. You find gates scattered throughout Japan. They remind me to appreciate the landscape and how beautiful and fragile it is.”

Camp de Rivesaltes, Study 13, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, 2022
“When I arrived at [second world war internment camp] Rivesaltes, it was pouring with rain, which is unusual for the south of France. In my usual fashion, I wandered around the periphery and slowly worked my way to the centre. Just after the rain had stopped, there was moisture on the ground, and a heaviness in the atmosphere that seemed very potent. It went well with the atmosphere of the place.”

Percy’s Perspective, Hokkaido, Japan, 2023
“A Scottish photographer I know called Bruce Percy found this location in Hokkaido. When I went there, it was snowing heavily, so I couldn’t see far. I set up my camera, and suddenly the clouds parted – this beautiful white cloud came into view. I made this photograph. It happened to be the 12th exposure, the final one on the roll of film. By the time I got the new roll in, the snow had come back.”

Michael Kenna: Photographs & Stories is published on 20 November by Nazraeli Press.