Stockholm's City Hall Photo

Photographer’s Note

This picture is taken in "Stadshuset", Stockholm's City Hall. To be found on the island Kungsholmen which means the king's islet and it is one of the many islands that are part of Stockholm. I actually consider myself very lucky being one of Kungsholmen's inhabitants :-)

The City Hall erected between 1911-1923 and is built after a design by the architect Ragnar Östberg. In case you wondered I did ask for permission to shoot with a tripod inside the different rooms and this is a detail of "Prinsens Galleri", which means Prince's Gallery.

It is in this room where special guests are welcomed and from where one has a magnificent view over "Riddarfjärden", which literally means the Knight Bay, a bay of the lake Mälaren in central Stockholm.

The City Hall is also where the annual ceremonial presentations of the Nobel awards for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and economics take place on the 10th of December. That ceremony followed by the Nobel Prize Banquet however does not take place in this room but in "Blå Hallen", The Blue Hall, which is the building's largest hall.

Noteworthy is that The Blue Hall is not painted blue but actually is build of red bricks. The architect Ragnar Östberg changed his mind when he saw the beautiful red bricks and decided not to cover them with blue plaster as he planned to do at first. The name Blue Hall was found on all the plans of the building and moreover, it was already in common use...

With respect to the Nobel Prizes, they were established from a fund bequeathed for that purpose by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel, who was born on Oct. 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden.
In the will he drafted in 1895, he called for the bulk of his fortune to be set aside as a fund for the award of five prizes awarded annually "to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
The five prizes established by his will were: the Nobel Prize for Physics, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Nobel Prize for Peace.

After Nobel's death on Dec. 10, 1896, the Nobel Foundation was set up to carry out the provisions of his will and to administer the fortune he had left. In his will Nobel had stipulated that four different institutions -three Swedish and one Norwegian- should award the prizes.
In Stockholm, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the prizes for physics, chemistry, and economics; the Karolinska Institute awards the prize for physiology or medicine; and the Swedish Academy awards the prize for literature. The Norwegian Nobel Committee based in Oslo awards the prize for peace.

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maciekda (19587) 2003-12-16 8:19

I like your "interior" pictures, always carefully composed, well exposed, they all have specific atmosphere... this one is nice too, interesting lines - pillars and those on the ceiling, warm colors, very estethic shot

Surfer31 (3587) 2003-12-16 11:56

Very nice picture and wonderful note too - perfect combination. The picture is very professional, very well composed (Maciej already said everything I would like to say about your picture). There is almost no distortion on the vertical lines of the image, that means you knew what you were doing before you made the shot. The light from the wondows fills in the room very gently and you captured it very well too. Congratulations.

zto (292) 2003-12-16 14:21

This is a very nice photo. Well composed and i like the soft light from teh window. It creates a special atmosphere in the photo. The composition makes it very easy to explore the whole photo.

Abocc (3292) 2003-12-16 15:20

This is a great achitectural photo, by its composition and its light.

allotfy (1525) 2003-12-16 17:34

this photo make me remmber my home :)
perfect shot and interesting note..well done

jrj (34779) 2003-12-17 8:30

As always your interiot shots are excellent. Here from a very representativ hall.
Also in this case as often followed with an interesting note. By the way: Do you know why Nobel wanted the Peace prize to be organized by the Norwegians?

joseelias (367) 2003-12-18 7:24

Excelent photo and excelent note. You've controled very well the light in a difficult condition. Light, shadows, reflections...

The softness of the image is also remarcable as well the capture of the different material textures. Nice point of view also.

sarastro (587) 2003-12-18 17:52

Underbar bild Edwin.

Fantastic light and lovely colors. Well composed as always. The city hall is really a great building with some very fine architecture, not the least on the inside.

<trivia>
Did you know that Stadshuset was build on the spot of Eldkvarn. A great mill, a smoking industrial building that thankfully burned down in 1878, hence the name which means fire-mill. (Actually, they kept using it for several years even after the fire, but it was finally torn down in the beginning of the 20th century to make place for city hall).
Image of Eldkvarn
Eldkvarn has also given it's name to a famous (in Sweden) rock group, it is also the base of a Swedish saying, "inte sen Eldkvarn brann" or "not since Eldkvarn was on fire" you say that about something that hasn't happened in a long time.
</trivia>

I'll allow myself to come with a small correction regarding the nobel prize cermony (I am such a besserwisser, ain't i ;). The presentation of the prizes take place in konserhuset (the consert hall) at Hötorget, and not in city hall. But the following party is indeed here, in the majestic blue hall.

Josh69 (1427) 2004-03-18 10:48

Nice work. It's a very 'clean' photo, everything is neat and there are no distracting elements. I particularly like the soft light coming in through the windows.