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Submitted: May 3, 2010
Image Size: 5.0 MB
Resolution: 3872×2592

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Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Camera Data

Make:NIKON CORPORATION
Model:NIKON D200
Shutter Speed:1/60 second
Aperture:F/29.0
Focal Length:34 mm
ISO Speed:100
Date Taken:Mar 17, 2010, 2:10:17 AM

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Within the Darkness Lies Lightby ~Findae

Photography / Architecture / Exterior

This is another photo from Dresden in Germany. The building is the Dresdner Frauenkirche, a Lutheran Church that holds a good deal of both sorrow and hope to the German people.

"On 13 February 1945, Anglo-American allied forces began the bombing of Dresden. The church withstood two days and nights of the attacks and the eight interior sandstone pillars supporting the large dome held up long enough for the evacuation of 300 people who had sought shelter in the church crypt, before succumbing to the heat generated by some 650,000 incendiary bombs that were dropped on the city. The temperature surrounding and inside the church eventually reached 1,000 degrees Celsius. The dome finally collapsed at 10 a.m. on 15 February. The pillars glowed bright red and exploded; the outer walls shattered and nearly 6,000 tons of stone plunged to earth, penetrating the massive floor as it fell.

The building vanished from Dresden's skyline, and the blackened stones would lie in wait in a pile in the center of the city for the next 45 years as Communist rule enveloped what was now East Germany. Shortly after the end of World War II, residents of Dresden had already begun salvaging unique stone fragments from the Church of Our Lady and numbering them for future use in reconstruction. Popular sentiment discouraged the authorities from clearing the ruins away to make a car park. In 1966, the remnants were officially declared a "memorial against war", and state-controlled commemorations were held there on the anniversaries of the destruction of Dresden.

In 1982, the ruins began to be the site of a peace movement combined with peaceful protests against the East German regime. On the anniversary of the bombing, 400 Dresdeners came to the ruins in silence with flowers and candles, part of a growing East German civil rights movement. By 1989, the number of protesters in Dresden, Leipzig and other parts of East Germany had increased to tens of thousands, and the wall dividing East and West Germany toppled. This opened the way to the reunification of Germany."

On June 22, 2004, afe days after the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the guilded cross was finally replaced upon the top of the dome, marking the final completion of the reconstruction of this gorgeous piece of the heart of Germany.

I captured it as best I could in a way that I felt impressioned the sadness and beauty that are the foundation of the church. The image is HDR done manually in photoshop. Eventually I will figure out photomatix enough to make my HDR pieces look good. Until then, they are as is. Enjoy.

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`Kendra-Paige Jul 1, 2011 Photographer

Very epic piece, from the backstory to the perfect use of lighting and composition - the building is both ominous and awe-inspiring, very impressive capture!