Lukas Walcher 06/07/2025 Lukas Walcher 06/07/2025

ÁGUA E PEDRA

Peter Zumthor - Thinking Architecture

If the naturalism and graphic virtuosity of architectural portrayal are too great, if they lack „open patches“ where our imagination and curiosity about the reality of the drawing can penetrate the image, the portrayal itself becomes the object of our desire, and our longing for the reality wanes because there is little or nothing in the representation that points to the intended reality beyond it. The portrayal no longer holds a promise. It refers only to itself.

“A drawing of a tree shows, not a tree, but a tree-being-looked-at ... within the instant of the sight of a tree is established a life-experience”, John Berger writes in his book on drawing. However, the same observation can be applied to the photograph.

Left: Spring, Forest Zurich, Right: Museo La Congiunta, Ticino

In a world dominated by the eye, the other senses are increasingly marginalized. The excess of visual stimuli fosters a sense of distance, leading to a life lived on the surface —as Juhani Pallasmaa describes in The Eyes of the Skin: “The dominance of the eye and the suppression of the other senses tends to push us into detachment, isolation and exteriority.”

Left: Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, Le Corbusier, Right: Ruin Caplutta Sogn Benedetg, Grischun

This series tries to offer a counterpoint to visual dominance: images that remain open rather than complete; images not merely to be seen, but to be remembered, felt, and stimulating the viewers imagination. These shown photographs are not mere portrayals of space—they are inviting. Each image invites imagination, invites memory to seep in. By avoiding of being to over defined; they are not finished and perfectly ducomentary photographies. Instead, they hold open patches—spaces for the viewer to enter, dream, and remember - to feel with every sense.

Left: Ruin Caplutta Sogn Benedetg, Grischun, Right: Praia das Catedrais, Galicia

Photography must not remain confined to the surface. If it aims to move us, it must offer a promise—and gesture beyond itself. Toward that which we feel before we think. Toward that which endures after the image has long since passed.

Left: Leis, Grischun, Right: Valle Verzasca, Ticino

The title Água e Pedra —water and stone— evokes both material and feeling. These elements appear throughout the work and speak to the two places that shaped this series: the atlantic shores of northern Portugal and the alps of Switzerland. Neither is my birthplace, yet both became places of living, of quiet belonging, both became some sort of home within. Both places urge me to feel.

Left: Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, Bourgogne, Right: Valle Verzasca, Ticino

The world shown in this photographic essay is an intense, intimate and private world for the viewer alone. the viewer is animated to sense the pulse of reality.

Left: Val Stussavgia, Grischun, Right: Leis, Grischun

ÁGUA E PEDRA

The series Água e Pedra - Water and Stone - has been created continuously over the last few years on the Atlantic coasts of northern Portugal and in the Alps of Switzerland. Despite the obvious contrasts, a closer look reveals many similarities. The photographs on display emphasise the perception of the landscape with all the human senses. This gives rise to recurring themes such as surfaces, light and shadow, warmth, wind and time. It is an attempt to visualise multisensory phenomena. This opens up an individual approach for the viewer.

Left: Valle Verzasca, Ticino, Right: Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, Bourgogne

Left: Apartamento Cedofeita, Porto, Right: Summer, Forest Zurich

LUKAS WALCHER

Lukas Walcher (*1994) studied architecture at TUM, at the FAUP in Porto and at the AdBK Munich. Lukas has been living and working in Zurich since January 2023 and has been a research assistant at the Chair of Design and Conception at the Technical University of Munich since April 2025. In addition to teaching, artistic architecture and landscape photography is part of his work. His focus is on spatial phenomena and analogue techniques.

A small part of the series is currently on view in Zurich as part of the group exhibition 4 Walls at the bookstore Never Stop Reading.

Instagram: walcher.l
website: lukaswalcher.eu

Photos by Lukas Walcher