'Jorn Utzon's Sydney Opera House' | Letter by Jan Utzon | The ultimative book capturing Utzon’s spirit | Specifications

To date one of the most famous and acclaimed music venues in the world, The Sydney Opera House.

The story of this exceptional Photographic ART Book involves the Sydney Opera House and its creator and renowned architect, Jorn Utzon. Without dwelling on history it shows the imagination, the vision, the passion, strong belief and the energy one has to have, to bring to life this building, which was to become an architectural masterpiece of global recognition, one of the most famous music venues in the world.

This photographic essay of the Sydney Opera House is commented by Jorn Utzon who expresses his appreciation of the photographer's interpretation of his edifice resulting in an unexpected intimacy between the old, wise architect and young, enthusiastic photographer.

His son, Jan Utzon, furthermore talks about the influence of the Sydney Opera House on his and his family's life until today. Anecdotes of memories and the selection criteria by which the Opera House Design won the competition are being revealed. It is further combined with sketches, drawings and formerly unpublished photographs from the Utzon archives.

The photographs showing Utzon's 'tour de force' aim to convey to the reader the photographer's fascination with the timeless beauty of the Sydney Opera House. A sensitive approach retrieving an existing structure, showing "through her eyes" the poetic beauty of the soaring roof-shells, trying to capture on film, some of the spirit apparent in the architect's initial sketches of the sculptural roof structure and other details.

The young photographer reveals new angles and challenges the viewer with her point of view of Utzon's masterpiece yet always allowing for the detailed beauty of the Opera House to unfold.

The story is also about a young photographer who pursued her dream about a fascinating building and its architect, how she met him and the influence of these meetings on her life and work.

This is a personal story by someone who went out to pursue her dream, and who received something in return, grander than ever imagined.

Thank you,

Many kind people send photographs to our office and to my father, photographs that are taken with obvious love of the building. Occasionally we receive pictures that stand out from the rest, pictures that present the building in a different and entirely new light.

When the first beautiful photos landed on my desk, taken by Katarina Stuebe of the Opera House, I knew that my father would be very happy to see them. We went through these, almost poetic images and were delighted to see such a fresh new approach for capturing the moods of the structure in photographs.

Indeed, our own photos, usually taken as a kind of factual record, showing the entire building from this side or that, in sunlight, with blue skies, leave little to the imagination.

Katarina's photos on the other hand, convey the spirit and the magic of the place, in a way we have not seen before. From the time Katarina took contact to us, we have seen further proof of her wonderful way of seeing the Opera House in its many moods, and her photos have the same quality of prodding our imagination as does an impressionist painting. Therefore these photos are not mere depictions of a building, but images that convey the spirit of the place and reveal the photographers love of the Sydney Opera House.

Katarina has become a dear friend, and her enthusiastic, youthful outlook on life and the world around her is an added bonus to her beautiful pictures, so I feel that it is obvious to take some of these pictures and make them available to a larger audience.

I hope that you will enjoy Katarina Stuebe's photos as much as we do, and that they may instill in you, some of the conceptual spirit of my father's competition project.

Enjoy,

Jan Utzon

• Foreword and last word by Jorn Utzon
• The book reveals personal stories, anecdotes and memories related to the Sydney Opera House, Australia and Mallorca as told by the Architect and his son
• Personal story of the influence of the Sydney Opera House on the Utzon family until today
• Unpublished and latest portraits of Jorn Utzon at his home in Hellebæk 2007 (by Katarina Stube)
• Unpublished photographs from the Utzon archive (1957 - 2007)
• Unpublished Sydney Opera House sketches and notes recently done by Jorn Utzon
• Jorn Utzon comments on unpublished Opera House photographs by Katarina Stube throughout this unique Photographic ART Book
• Unpublished Opera House photographs signed by Jorn Utzon 2006
• Unpublished photographs of Jorn Utzon, Jan Utzon and Katarina at his home in Hellebek
• Personal story of Katarina Stube making the impossible happen, meeting the recognized architect Jørn Utzon and being encouraged by him and his son Jan to present her unpublished Sydney Opera House images to a broader audience
• First hand information and insight being revealed on the ongoing and future work of The Sydney Opera House by Jan Utzon

Format:		290 x 340 mm
Pages:		184 pages, hard cover with jacket
Content:		75% Opera House Photographs by Katarina Stuebe 10% Architectural Content including original competition drawings, unrevealed material by Jorn Utzon, unreleased sketches, family archive photos etc. 15% Text including quotes by Jorn Utzon, unheard anecdotes from his life, valuable information about the past yet focussing on the future of the Sydney Opera House