The Guggenheim and the riverside

Frank Gehry's museum opened in 1997 on a derelict industrial riverbank and turned Bilbao from a post-industrial city into a destination. The titanium panels curve in every direction and change colour with the weather — silver in cloud, gold at sunset, and almost white at midday.

For a photographer the building is a machine for making backgrounds. Every angle gives a different set of curves, and the riverside walkways on both banks mean you can circle it and never repeat a frame. Puppy, the giant flower-covered sculpture at the entrance, gives colour that the metal does not.

Bilbao's weather is Atlantic and often overcast, which suits this location better than sun does: flat light makes the titanium subtle rather than blinding, and softens faces at the same time.