Architectural Photography Almanac
A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
The Architecture & Design Film Festival has taken its screening online this year due to covid. Starting November 19th, the ADFF will be presenting their final session of the year. The final session will feature 15 full-length films that come from 13 countries across both hemispheres, including a couple of short films by Jim Stephenson whom I had interviewed earlier in the year.
Last weekend, in Gold Coast (Australia), we had the Open House and coincidently, it was the same weekend as the Open House New York and Chicago programs as well. I love the Open House programs as it gives you access to a lot of impressive buildings that generally wouldn’t be open to the general public.
Copyright infringement is a prevalent issue among photographers. There have been several articles on APAlmanac discussing copyright infringements in various forms. I have noticed that whenever copyright is discussed, it is more from the North American perspective rather than an Australian perspective.
Over a decade ago I had come across Keith Loutit’s work, the Bathtub Series. It was his videos that piqued my fascination with tilt-shift lenses as a way to make the world look miniature. His unique work has parlayed him into creating numerous direct commercial campaigns globally and recently, he released his latest film, Lion City Rising.
Recently, Aputure announced its latest LED-based 7 watt smart light bulb, Accent B7c. There are a plethora of smart bulbs on the market but what sets this smart bulb apart from that rest is that it was specifically designed for filmmakers and addressing three use cases: Implementing high colour fidelity based on the RGBWW specification and flexible colour temperature (2000K to 10000K), 100% flicker-free operation and wireless connectivity through Bluetooth Mesh network.
Ikea founded in 1943 by 17-year old, Ingvar Kamprad, as a mail-order company selling office supplies in its infancy. Fast forward to today, it has become a global brand and spread across the world with 294 stores (owned by Ikea) in 40 countries. Over time, they have evolved to be known as the king of flat-pack furniture.
Ishita Sitwala is an architectural & interiors photographer from Ahmedabad (Gujarat) in India. Her passion for architecture was borne by her father’s own keen interest in architecture and dissuaded her from following the family’s footsteps of becoming a doctor. Through architecture, photography came as a way of documenting the day to day life.
Roland Miller is a documentary and fine art photographer hailing from Chicago, Illinois. He has been documenting the various test and launch sites NASA and the United States Air Force had developed for the early space missions (Gemini and Apollo) for 30 years. Partway through this journey caught the attention of NASA that gave Roland unprecedented access to some of its projects.
Taran Wilkhu is a London based Interiors and Architectural photographer whom I had come across during the Zoomed In Festival. He has to be one of the most interesting photographers I have come across because his professional career has taken many different trajectories before finding his true calling.
I had come across Nikolas Strugar by way of Andy Macpherson talking about Nikolas on his BAAM podcast when discussing architectural filmmaking. Nikolas is based in Brisbane (Australia) and looking at his LinkedIn page, and I was intrigued by how varied his career was and the diversity of skills he has picked up along the way, especially how he manages to fuse his various skills on projects.
Scandinavian brands like MENU have played a huge part in influencing my interior photography especially from styling and compositional perspectives. MENU has been one of my favourite brands not only because of their products but how cohesively they communicate their brand value visually.
Representation of architecture in social media is becoming more and more prevalent, as there is a trend where an architect or interior designer will design a space that will be more Instagrammble in the pursuit of getting likes. In this episode of Archimarathon, hosts Kevin Hui and Andrew Maynard both discuss how projects are now represented solely through the hero image rather than through architectural drawings in social media.
In April, there was the ZoomedIn Festival in which a number of architectural photographers from around the world appeared as guest speakers. Many of them I had not heard of, and one in particular — UK based photographer/film-maker Jim Stephenson — immediately caught my attention. Jim was a former architectural technologist turned architectural photographer and now film-maker.
Nicole England is a Melbourne (Australia) based Architectural & Interiors Photographer who, like many New Zealanders including myself, came to Australia in the early 2000s. Nicole is one of the most sought after photographers in Australia, you can always find her shooting across the country on some of the most high profile projects.
Back in 2016, I had this dream of wanting to photograph projects in the US and I had very little knowledge of how American architects commissioned photographers moreover what their style/requirements were. What I had observed was that there was a distinct difference in interior architecture between styles between New York and Australia which often dictated how projects were photographed.
Architecturally, speaking Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) is a name that resonates with most people and perhaps it is due to his one of his many notable projects the iconic Guggenheim Museum in New York. He had started his architectural practice in the suburb of Oak Park in Chicago, specialising in the design of prairie styled homes.
Back in 2016, I remember the opening scene to Marvel’s Dr Strange trailer which showed a snippet of the Manhattan skyline and as an architecture buff, I couldn’t help myself grin when I noticed Bjarke Ingles’ W57 project firmly asserting itself in the scene. I have always been fascinated by the work of Bjarke Ingles because his architecture transcends the traditional notion of architecture we have become accustomed to.
Last month, the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) launched its first online program as a response to the COVID-19 breakout and due to the success of their April programme they have announced another four film in May. Each film is screened daily starting on 17th and running until the 20th with two broadcasts starting at 8pm ET and 8pm PT, and each film ticket costing US$0.99.
Since I have started writing for APAlmanac, discovering how other photographers and film-makers using are motion to create a narrative about architecture has been fascinating. Even the recent ZoomedIn Festival heavily touched on this subject matter as part of their talks.
One of the things I love about good architecture is the design narrative of a project. The narrative allows one to appreciate how the architect uses the surroundings and history to inform their architectural intent. Over the last couple of years, one of the best ways to learn these are through architectural talks hosted in Melbourne.
Veeral Patel