45 references for atmospheric archviz

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog · The Monk by the Sea

A figure seen from behind, sublime scale, fog separating the planes.

Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams (1900) · Strandgade interiors

Silence, gray window light, an almost monochrome palette.

Christina’s World · Wind from the Sea

Earthy palette, melancholy, a high horizon and a lot of empty field.

Nighthawks · Morning Sun

Light as narrative: one source, one figure, one wait.

Rain, Steam and Speed

Atmosphere that dissolves form. Close values, one point of light.

North Cape · lighthouses on the Norwegian coast

Nordic landscape in few values, almost a print.

Winter Night in the Mountains

Night blue, snow, the light that remains after the sun.

Above Eternal Peace

A lyrical, restrained landscape, a heavy sky, small architecture.

Paisagens imaginantes (imaginary landscapes of Minas Gerais)

Mountains floating in mist, tiny churches. The closest Brazilian painter to the Nordic atmosphere.

Marinhas (seascapes) of Itanhaém and Abaeté

A low horizon, a lot of empty space, a restrained palette.

Night woodcuts

One streetlight against the dark. A lesson in value and in solitude.

Saudade (Longing) · Caipira picando fumo (Caipira Cutting Tobacco)

True Brazilian light: hard sun, dense shadow, a doorway lighting the interior.

Marinhas (seascapes) of the Rio de Janeiro coast

Sky and sea in few values, fast plein-air painting.

Landscapes of Rio de Janeiro state · Grupo Grimm

Plein-air painting, forest and humid atmosphere.

Landscapes of Teresópolis

Diffuse, impressionist light in a tropical mountain climate.

Fachadas (Façades) · Bandeirinhas (Little Flags)

A palette education: lowered, earthy, restrained colors.

Beneath the Roses

Film lighting in a suburban scene. Every lit window tells something.

House Hunting

Houses at night, fog on the glass, one light on.

Long-exposure landscapes

Black and white, a lot of emptiness, single elements in the fog.

Seascapes

The horizon in the middle, almost nothing. Pure value gradation.

Early Color

Wet glass, snow, color in small patches.

Gênesis (Genesis) · Amazônia

Mist, scale and the small human in the landscape.

Noturnos São Paulo (São Paulo Nocturnes)

The city at night, grainy and melancholic.

Night photographs of the Amazon

The color of artificial light sources in the humid dark.

Brasília under construction

Modernist architecture with impeccable light and scale.

São Paulo in black and white

Urban architecture as a value study.

Latin American modernist architecture

How tropical light hits concrete and cobogó (breeze-block) walls.

Brazilian architectural photography

Dense shadow, strong sky, raw material.

A Luta Yanomami (The Yanomami Struggle)

Light, blur and atmosphere as language.

Blade Runner 2049 · 1917 · Skyfall

One motivated light source, silhouettes, fog in layers.

The Revenant · The Tree of Life

Natural light only, blue hour, backlight in the forest.

Cries and Whispers · Persona

Soft Nordic window light, faces and silence.

Stalker · Mirror

Water, wind, rain inside the house. Time as atmosphere.

Cinematography: Walter Carvalho

Practically painting: chiaroscuro, dust in the light, dark interiors.

Cinematography: Walter Carvalho

The sertão in hard light and an earthy palette.

Cinematography: Luiz Carlos Barreto

Light blown out on purpose. Heat becomes language.

Cinematography: Mauro Pinheiro Jr.

Bleached white, an atmosphere of heat.

Directed by Maya Da-Rin

The urban Amazon, humidity and silence.

James Gurney

Atmospheric perspective, diffuse light, the color of shadows. The most important one.

Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Composition and value reading in few tones.

Richard Yot

How light behaves, in practice.

Visualization studio, Bergen (mir.no)

The building as part of a moment.

Sítio Burle Marx · Aterro do Flamengo (Flamengo Park)

Vegetation as the protagonist of the image.

MuBE · Pinacoteca

Raw concrete that asks for rain, stains and time.

Casa de Vidro (Glass House) · SESC Pompeia

A house in the forest, concrete and filtered light.