43. A Rainy Day at the Guggenheim: Slowing Down to See

A rainy Saturday afternoon at the Guggenheim—the week between Christmas and New Year’s—was bound to be crowded—and it was. But that ended up working out perfectly.

When planning our family trip to NY a few months ago, I was disappointed that the Guggenheim exhibits didn’t excite me. But I wanted to go there nonetheless. I love architecture and especially Frank Lloyd Wright. And after I convinced the kids to watch some Guggenheim architecture videos they were intrigued and wanted to see it for themselves¹.

One major draw for me was a Guggenheim audio guide created by Roman Mars and 99% Invisible five years ago. I’d listened to it when it first came out, but I’d always wanted to experience it while in the building.

We walked in, made our way through the coat check line, found the tucked-away bathrooms, and then made our way to the center of the lobby. Looking around, I was glad that art wasn’t our main focus. The constant flow of people made it clear that seeing the art at my pace would have been impossible.

But as we settled in I realized the museum was buzzing—the crowds added energy and life to the museum.

The audio tour was great and left us at the top of the spiral excited to see and photograph the building with a new perspective.

At first, my shots were the predictable photos of the museum curves and lines—but they weren’t even good cliche shots of the museum.

After a bit, I began to slow down, replay the audio guide in my mind, and really try to see the museum.

While reviewing my photos, I noticed a blurred figure in one of the frames. That’s when it hit me: my focus should not be the architecture alone—I should be focused on the people, energy, and life in the museum.

I slowed down the shutter speed, experimented with different settings, and finally settled on 1/2 second to 4-second exposures. I tried propping my camera on the low, slanted parapet of the spiral ramp and found an awkward but workable way to hold it for long exposures. The results were satisfying: blurred figures gliding through the space.

Once I’d captured enough of that, I tried something new. Inspired by the idea of tracking a moving subject like a racecar—I began panning the camera to follow people or groups. The challenge: people don’t all move at a steady rate—and trying to shoot people all the way across the museum with just my pocket camera and its fixed 40mm lens didn’t make it any easier.

I stuck with it and eventually started to get results I liked.

I left feeling like I had become a bit closer to the Guggenheim—and that I was successful in choosing a photo technique that worked to capture what I felt in the space.

Bonus photo taken ~1993

1. One son says “Overall good post, even if it includes some inaccuracies about your children. I was intrigued even without your architecture videos that I didn’t watch—I also like cool buildings. Also, those photos came out well even if you stole my shot for the first one.”