Architectural Photography Almanac
A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
This edition of Story of an Image is not necessarily a showcase of how you should go about creating a beautiful image, but rather an exercise in being resourceful if you ever find yourself unprepared and without the proper tools. This is the story of a somewhat random outing in Shanghai which led to the creation of one of my favorite images I have ever taken.
With Independence Day in America having just passed, I was feeling nostalgic when considering what I wanted to share with our audience this month. I decided to go back to my academic roots. Being from the South, I recalled how nearby Auburn University’s Rural Studio, and in particular its visionary co-founder, Samuel ‘Sambo’ Mockbee, were so inspirational to me during my architecture studies way back when.
Icons of the modernist movement, Charles and Ray Eames, taught us to see the world differently. “Eventually, everything connects – people, ideas, objects…the quality of the connections is the key to quality” Charles Eames famously stated. Over their remarkable career, the Eames cultivated a design process where ‘learning by doing’ was their mantra and who vowed to never to delegate understanding.
Shanghai is known for its glitz and glamor – a showpiece city exemplifying China’s thriving economy and emergence as a global superpower. Its iconic skyline defines the city internationally and, compared to some of its ancient counterparts, many of which have rich histories dating back thousands of years, Shanghai is a Chinese city that is sometimes thought of as having little history at all.
It’s time for the 17th annual Venice Biennale! May 22nd through November 21st 2021, the Biennale Architettura explores the theme “How Will We Live Together?” can be attended in Venice, Giardini, and Arsenale. The Biennale features international architecture and is curated by Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkisand.
Power Structures is a new photographic exhibition co-curated by architectural photographer Luke O’Donovan and architect/urban planner and photographer Francisco Ibáñez Hantke. The exhibition focuses on how socioeconomic and political structures shape the built environment and the far-reaching footprint of urban expansion.
Almost every client of mine asks for the same thing; “let your images show how my spaces are used!”
Architectural photographs must be brought to life. It is something that we photographers have to do subtly because people have to add a ‘usage dimension’ to the image and should not become the main subject.
The second installment of my recently created Story of an Image series takes us to the western Chinese city of Chongqing – a massive, uninhibited metropolis that most people outside China may not have even heard of. While my previous article took you through my thought process for a non-commissioned portfolio capture, this time we’re on the clock working for global design firm, Woods Bagot, tasked with photographing both the exterior as well as the interior public areas of their Guohua International Financial Center project.
James Turrell is an American artist recognized for his work with light and space. This LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) produced documentary shares his personal background and experiments with light as a medium that creates spaces and alters perception. It also gives a short virtual tour of his works, from small rooms called Skyspaces to the ongoing project of a naked-eye observatory within an extinct volcano; Roden Crater.
I have always viewed architectural visualization and architectural photography as two sides of the same coin. They bookend the architectural representation process, the former being created at the very outset, while the latter wraps up the project’s design and construction journey.
We’re shaking things up this Project of the Week with a very cool series put together by photographer Nikola Olic. Nikola is a Serbian photographer living in Dallas, Texas, and has compiled a project in which architectural photography is combined with “abstract structural quotes that reimagine their subjects in playful, dimensionless and disorienting ways.”
Many of my introductions to world-famous designers happened through conversations with friends who are very heavily entrenched in the design sphere. The introduction to Dieter Rams came by way of a friend, John Bastiras, who is perhaps the only person I know who possesses a vast knowledge of Australian architecture in the world of cycling (my other love).
While I continue to wait (now, somewhat impatiently) for DJI to release the latest edition of their Mavic Pro series, I thought I’d share a video Dezeen produced about the impact drones will have (or perhaps already are having) on our lives and the way we relate to each other across space and the cities we live in.
So you’ve made the decision to pursue your passion for photographing architecture. Fantastic news! Your dreams of hopping from one beautiful building to another, capturing it as only you can, and getting paid for it are about to come true. But you’ve got one major problem – you don’t have any clients.
I have found Bjarke Ingels to be one of the most fascinating architects who is constantly pushing the envelope in terms of maximizing site potential and what is possible architecturally. Last year, a documentary was released about the design and construction of the world’s cleanest waste-to-energy plant, CopenHill.
Sanjog Mhatre is an architecture photographer based in India. Now based in the country’s second-most populous city, Mumbai, Sanjog has at the ripe age of only 23 years, already photographed dozens (132 to be exact!) of the tallest and most significant buildings in this supercity of 20 million people.
Have you ever had a client ask you to take a photo that looks like a previously made render? I bet that most of us architectural photographers have been confronted with this (at times impossible) task. As a result of quarantine boredom, an interesting thought occurred to me: What if I were to invert this process, trying to replicate one of my actual photographs using a rendering program?
Recently I came across a portfolio review video from Rishabh Wadhwa’s YouTube channel, BlessedArch. Together with Mariana Cabugueira Custodio dos Santos, a Portuguese architect working for Zaha Hadid Architects in London, they review and critique architectural portfolios.
While the criteria between an architectural portfolio and a photography portfolio are not one and the same, I believe there are a lot of parallels between the two.
A year after transitioning from architecture to architectural photography full-time, I wanted to share some initial thoughts comparing and contrasting the two professions. Hopefully, this will resonate with others who have, or are considering, making a similar sort of career transition.
Let’s face it, 2020 was rough. And while the new year will by no means see a complete return to anything resembling normal – there are certainly reasons to be hopeful. Vaccines are already beginning to be distributed in many countries and, more specific to our line of work, the construction industry seems to be picking back up.
Justin Szeremeta
Lexi Taciak
Rob van Esch
Dane Alonso
Veeral Patel