This photo is part of a series that Cordes took of Ancient Greek monuments. This image is among four of the Propylaea, the monumental gateway to the Acropolis. In this series, Cordes approached several of his subjects the same way. He took two nearly identical photographs, one brightly lit, one dimly lit, suggesting different times of day. Accordingly, this photograph has a dimly-lit twin. This decision suggests an idiosyncratic approach to documentary thoroughness. Rather than attempting to capture his famous subjects from every angle, Cordes opted for a few viewpoints that captured important details and displayed them in different lighting. This approach calls into question whether photographing a subject in bright light is an ideal, or necessarily the most accurate way to do so, and raises the possibility that dim lighting has applications beyond the purely aesthetic.
“Propylaea” is a general term for a type of monumental gateway or entranceway that derives its form from the original Propylaea pictured here. In a sense, then, the purposes of Cordes’ Propylaea photographs are twofold: to depict an Ancient Greek monument as a specific site and to depict the consummate example of an architectural form.
-Ethan Spielman