'For just one day or so every year, the restrained granite wall of this Breuer house is covered in red camellia petals. Their impact brings to mind the iconic scene in the film American Beauty, when Mena Suvari floats on a bed of scarlet petals' Photograph: John Pawson
'This aluminium wall piece by Donald Judd, anodised in chrome yellow, is something I never tire of looking at, but it also changes the surrounding space. You'd barely notice this tapering vertical streak of light, but it has a visual charge next to Judd's pristine horizontals' Photograph: John Pawson
'This pool is part of the oldest surviving building in southern Africa – the pentagonal Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, built by the Dutch in the mid-17th century. I was struck by how bizarre these steps are; the water's clearly not meant for swimming in' Photograph: John Pawson
'Southwold is a small coastal town in the east of England. Almost entirely bound by water of one sort or another – sea, harbour, river and creek – it has just one road going in and out. This was one of those days when the sea sporadically threw up a powerful wave that broke over the promenade. The nuclear power station forms a startling silhouette on the horizon' Photograph: John Pawson
'This tree is on a bluff in Goleta, Santa Barbara, where the Tecolote Creek runs down to the Pacific Ocean. Its fibrous root looks like a dinosaur's scaly toe. Not far out of shot is the burial ground of the native Chumash people. There's a theory that Sir Francis Drake spent several weeks here in 1579 while his ship was undergoing repairs' Photograph: John Pawson
'This shot was taken in my back garden in London after an autumn rain shower. The honey coloured limestone darkens to grey, but the grid of slabs still forms the perfect backdrop for the hues of the leaves and the lone rose petal. Most of the forms are static, but the two wisteria stems are almost balletic' Photograph: John Pawson
'Richard Meier designed this apartment building in Greenwich Village, overlooking the Hudson River, and I watched it going up, one floor a day. I didn't notice the unusual thinness of the slabs until after I took this' Photograph: John Pawson
'These paint spatterings are on a workbench in the paint shop of the Pinarello cycle factory in the north of Italy. The man who dealt with my order was put out when I said I wanted it to be as plain as possible, without any colourful branding in the frame' Photograph: John Pawson
'There is something ridiculous about having an artificial backdrop between you and such a spectacular panorama, but this is Universal Studios, where everything is about manipulating man-made fields of view. There may no longer be actors wandering around sets, but this is a frenetic theme park rather than a series of deserted relics' Photograph: John Pawson
