Curves and Lines

The golden dome of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow stands in front of one of the towers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. I made this photo in central Moscow in daylight, using a long lens to pull the two landmarks close together.

What caught my eye was the contrast between the shapes. The church dome is all soft curves, rounded metal, and warm reflections. Behind it, the Stalinist tower rises in stacked vertical lines, sharp edges, and pale stone. They feel completely different in style, but in this frame they fit together in a very simple way.

I like how the cross sits almost in the middle of the background building and breaks up the heavy geometry behind it. The gold surface also changes the mood of the picture. Even in fairly plain light, it adds warmth and gives the foreground a strong presence against the cooler, flatter tones of the tower.

This part of Moscow is full of views where different periods of the city overlap, and I wanted to keep the composition tight so that the relationship between the two buildings did most of the work. The telephoto compression helped flatten the distance and made the dome and the high-rise look almost stacked on top of each other. That visual squeeze is really the whole point of the photo.

I also kept the frame vertical to follow the upward movement of both structures. The lines of the tower pull the eye straight up, while the dome slows that movement with its wider base and rounded top. For me, that push and pull between hard lines and smooth curves is what gives the picture its title.