This stark black and white portrait captures the weathered face of architect Thomas Danielson toward the end of his life in 1980. Danielson insisted the photographer use harsh side lighting to cast deep shadows obscuring his frostbitten nose - a remnant of years spent in solitary wilderness hikes as an act of penance for his own hand in "destructive" architecture.
The chiaroscuro lighting seems a fitting metaphor for Danielson's radically divergent reputations. To his supporters, he was a charismatic visionary who reshaped cities with audacious futuristic designs. To critics, he was a reckless ego who bulldozed neighbourhoods and disrupted communities in service of grandiose ambition over human needs.
Christened "The Janus of Progress" for his two-faced legacy, this portrait of Danielson presents a man as simultaneously bright with determination yet obscured in shadow and regret. The severe shadows conceal as much truth as they reveal about this controversial figure's complex indelible impact on the modern urban landscape.
