Franziska in the Henninger Turm: a bar above Frankfurt
Published
Franziska sits high above Frankfurt in the Henninger Turm. The counter follows the curve of the building, the floor-to-ceiling windows open onto the city, and in a picture the two belong together.
It was photographed in the evening, at blue hour and after — which is when the place is actually used. A daylight frame would have shown a different room from the one guests sit in.
Blue hour is a short window
In the evening there is a stretch of about twenty minutes when the sky outside and the lighting inside are of similar brightness. Only then can skyline and interior be held in one exposure.
Before it the daylit sky overpowers the room; after it the glass turns into a mirror and shows the ceiling of the bar instead of the city. Anyone who needs both plans the appointment around those minutes and settles the standpoints in advance.
That is why frames like these do not happen in passing: the setup has to be standing before the light arrives.
The camera position follows the curve
The counter is round because the building is round. Stand square in front of it and it becomes a straight line, and the tower disappears from the frame.
Stand instead at the start of the bend and counter, lamps, window bays and city stack away into depth. The curve becomes a guide that pulls the eye through the whole picture.
The lamps on the bar set the beat: repeated at equal spacing, they make the distance readable that an empty counter would otherwise swallow.
The service belongs in the frame
Part of the series was made during the evening, with guests at the counter, bottles in a bed of ice and colored light in the room.
Those frames are technically harder than an empty bar: people move, the light changes color, and long exposures are out. In exchange they answer the question an empty room leaves open — how busy it is, and what that feels like.
Together the two make a usable stock: empty rooms for architecture and reservations, busy ones for anything that has to tell the story of an evening.
More frames from up there
Why the view alone is not enough
In a house at this height the temptation is to photograph the city and pick up the venue in passing. The result is pictures that could have been made anywhere a window hangs high enough.
Only the combination of panorama, counter, light and service shows what the place is like: loud or quiet, bright or dark, for sitting or for standing. The skyline is the argument, not the subject.
