Jakob Straub: Roma Rotunda

Jakob Straub, born in Berlin in 1975, works as a graphic designer as well as a photographer. For years he has photographed the interiors of domes in Rome—in churches and secular buildings alike—with an analog medium-format camera. Roma Rotunda, published by Hatje Cantz in 2015, gathers that work. The project does not set out to survey the city’s churches: in choosing motifs Straub does not weigh art-historical standing, and his routes often lead to structures off the beaten track, unlisted in any travel guide.

What interests him is the founding idea behind a structure’s design. Using a specially developed photographic technique, he reduces the architecture to its basic form, bringing the dome back to the drawing board, so to speak—a graphic designer’s regard applied to built space. What the reduction leaves is the rotunda itself, a symbol of perfection and impermanence, poised where architecture meets graphic design.

The book gives this inquiry an unusual body: ninety-six pages, hardcover, in leporello, with thirty-six sacred rotundas presented on an eighteen-metre accordion fold at 195 by 385 millimetres. Straub designed the volume; Mark Gisbourne contributes texts, and the edition appears in German and English with thirty-seven photographs.

The method is inseparable from the result. Working over years with a single camera format, Straub returns to the same problem rather than accumulating subjects; the reduction is what allows the domes to be seen together, however far apart their settings. The series reads less as a set of descriptions than as a sustained study of one architectural type.

For a collector the interest lies in the conjunction of subject and format: an inquiry into the circular plan issued as a folding sheet, with the book designed by the photographer. It is at once a photographic series and an act of design—a designer’s attention to form carried into a printed object.

For many years now, Jakob Straub (*1975 in Berlin) has been taking photographs of the interiors of domes in churches and profane buildings in Rome using an analog medium-format camera. In this long-term project, the graphic designer and photographer is not concerned with an exhaustive documentation of, for instance, the numerous churches in the city. Rather, what he is interested in is the original idea behind the design of the structures—and thus by means of a specially developed photographic technique he reduces the architecture to its basic form and brings it back to the drawing board, so to speak. In his selection of motifs, because he does not focus on their art-historical relevance his paths often lead him to structures off the beaten track that are not listed in any travel guide. The publication presents thirty-six sacred rotundas, symbols of perfection and impermanence, on an eighteen-meter-long accordion fold.

Designed by: Jakob Straub
Texts by: Mark Gisbourne
German, English
March 2015, 96 Pages , 37 Photos
hardcover, leporello (concertina fold)
195mm x 385mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-3975-7

Publisher page editorial text:
| Roman dome architecture at the interface between art and design
For many years now, Jakob Straub (*1975 in Berlin) has been taking photographs of the interiors of domes in churches and profane buildings in Rome using an analog medium-format camera. In this long-term project, the graphic designer and photographer is not concerned with an exhaustive documentation of, for instance, the numerous churches in the city. Rather, what he is interested in is the original idea behind the design of the structures—and thus by means of a specially developed photographic technique he reduces the architecture to its basic form and brings it back to the drawing board, so to speak. In his selection of motifs, because he does not focus on their art-historical relevance his paths often lead him to structures off the beaten track that are not listed in any travel guide. The publication presents thirty-six sacred rotundas, symbols of perfection and impermanence, on an eighteen-meter-long accordion fold.

Publisher source ↗