Geisel Library - UC San Diego

Some architecture feels designed for function. Other architecture feels designed to challenge your perception. Geisel Library does both.

This project started as a personal exploration. No client, no shot list, no timeline. Just an obsession with one of the most iconic and polarizing structures in San Diego. I had photographed the library before in passing, but this time the goal was different. I wanted to create images that felt cinematic and alive rather than simply documenting the building itself.

Designed by William Pereira in the late 1960s, Geisel Library has become a landmark of brutalist architecture and a defining symbol of the University of California San Diego campus. The structure almost feels unreal in person. Depending on the angle, it can look futuristic, monolithic, alien, or strangely elegant. The building constantly shifts with light, shadow, fog, and perspective, which made it the perfect subject for a long-form personal study.

The purpose of the project was not just to photograph the library, but to explore atmosphere and scale through architecture. I spent time walking the structure, studying how people moved through it, waiting for moments where the geometry, light, and human presence aligned in a way that created tension or emotion. Some frames leaned architectural. Others felt more like scenes from a science fiction film.

At night, the building completely transforms. The concrete softens, reflections deepen, and the glowing interior windows start carving shapes into the darkness. Those were the moments I found myself most drawn to.

Projects like this are important to me because they pull photography back into exploration. No deadlines, no expectations, just curiosity guiding the process. Sometimes that is where the strongest images come from.