An Erotic Exploration of Architectural Surface: Gaudi & Gehry

Joe Aker, a renowned Architectural photographer, was intrigued by the undulating shapes of Barcelona’s Casa Mila, an expansive apartment building designed by Gaudi. Aker decided to look for the sensuous details inside of the work, where most people never look. Within the Gaudi structure, as well as the luminous surfaces of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Aker delineated forms that are as supple and suggestive as contemporary nude sculpture. “Looking beyond surface is important to my work”, says Aker, “I want to strip away the masks of the exterior and show the emotional charge that runs beneath form into feeling.”

In 2005, Joe began to exhibit his own fine art work. He has had two solo shows at the Deborah Colton Gallery in Houston and a solo show of his landscape photography in Galveston at the Buchanan Gallery. His work has appeared in numerous museum group shows and in now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. He has lectured on photography worldwide.