Award-winning architectural photographer Gregor Sailer goes to extremes to take images that reflect inequality, insecurity and what lies ahead for the human race.
By Petra Soho
For the book Closed Cities, Austrian photographer Gregor Sailer pointed his camera at architecture where the rest of the world hadn’t yet looked, capturing places that are isolated even from our perception.
Over three years, Sailer examined closed urban forms in Siberia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Chile, Algeria and Argentina, from minefields and military installations to refugee camps and gated communities for the wealthy.
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“It was important to me to show a wide range of architecture with this project,” says Sailer. Revealing the absurd dynamics that lead to the existence of such places, his photographs scrutinise burning societal questions such as climate change, dwindling resources, political conflicts and an excessive need for security.
He came across these urban structures that lie secret, artificial and isolated across the planet, devoting research to questions of urbanity. The term “closed city” originally comes from the Soviet Union, where numerous secret cities existed during the Cold War before being officially “opened” and shown on maps. Even today, there are still urban zones globally that are hermetically sealed off from the outside world by walls, the hostile landscapes surrounding them, or the corporate giants that govern them.
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To get to these places, Sailer needed special permits along with plenty of patience and persistence in dealing with state authorities, secret services and other organisations such as the world’s second-largest diamond supplier, Alrosa.
The firm controls the entry to Mirny, a Siberian city only accessible via Alrosa’s airline, which decides who can come and go.
“At the airport, there are pictures of foreigners who are in the city but not allowed to leave,” Sailer reveals.
Mirny’s 45,000 inhabitants live around the edge of a gigantic open-pit mine 525m deep, with a diameter of more than 1.2km. Over the mine is a no-fly zone as helicopters have previously been pulled into its depths.
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While Sailer experienced only harsh weather conditions in Siberia, he faced a grim situation working in Azerbaijan, where authorities briefly captured him on suspicion of espionage. The extreme experiences he has encountered take a mental and physical toll on the photographer and winner of numerous awards, including the DAM (German Architecture Museum) Architectural Book Award and the European Architectural Photography Award.
He tackles these through exercise. Fitness is vital for him, particularly as Sailer usually works alone, carrying his analogue view camera and equipment through challenging regions with temperatures ranging from 50°C to well below zero.
“I often have to make my way through desert or snow storms over several hours. If you’re in bad shape, the whole thing wouldn’t be possible,” says Sailer, who has produced 11 monographs so far.
Sailer runs and trains all year round. With the Tux Alps and the Karwendel mountain range near his home town in Tyrol, he loves ski touring and cross-country skiing in winter, while mountaineering is part of his summer fitness regime.
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But bad weather, adverse conditions and the winter months are Sailer’s preferred moments to press the shutter.
“I find the light exciting,” he says. “Freezing the light of a storm in the context of architectural objects creates a whole special atmosphere that the eye cannot even perceive.”
Such atmospheric photos can be found in his latest book, The Polar Silk Road, in which Sailer deals with the economic exploitation of the Arctic and the territorial claims of the respective neighbouring states.
But why does Sailer take on these hardships? As a photographer and artist, he sees his main task as instilling a different level of awareness around critical topics like climate change.
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“These issues seem far away for most people, yet they are incredibly close. As they all influence us directly, I aim to create visual access for outsiders,” Sailer explains. –
Note: Gregor Sailer’s Closed Cities will be part of the Breaking Down Walls! The Collections exhibition at Museum der Moderne Salzburg until October 9, 2024.
