Ten rooms that look like they were location-scouted. The atlas as movie set.
Some venues photograph well. A handful of venues photograph like the establishing shot of a feature film. This is the cinematic shortlist: the ten rooms in the Sonic Paths atlas whose visual signature is so strong it could carry a film opening on its own.
Friedrichshain power plant, 18-metre concrete ceilings, single yellow light. Berghain has been the establishing shot for half of Germany's recent cinematic export. Photographic on purpose.
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Glass facade, Arctic light, the harbour. Olafur Eliasson designed it as a sculpture; it works as a film set by accident.
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Gezira Island at dusk. Mamluk arches, palms, the Nile in the background. The film set the Arab world has been waiting for.
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Dune 45 at sunrise. Deadvlei at midday. Aerial of the red dunes. Three of the most-photographed landscapes on Earth, all in one site.
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Carved from a frozen river every winter. A literal ice cathedral, with audience breath visible in the air.
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Edwardian Bath stone, the balcony Mandela spoke from. The opening shot of every South African political documentary since 1990.
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Kalagala Falls. Six stages on the Nile rapids. Dust in the light. The most-cinematic festival site on the continent.
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Tankwa Karoo. Effigies in flames against a black-sky horizon. The desert burn that has photographed itself into the Burning Man canon.
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Casablanca, 210m minaret, half-built over the Atlantic. The architectural anchor of the Arab world. Films use it without permission.
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Active volcano, Aeolian Islands. Rossellini filmed Ingrid Bergman here in 1950. The cinematic precedent has been set for 75 years.
Read the full entry →Editorial cuts of the Sonic Paths atlas.