Architectural Photography Almanac
A resource for working professional photographers and design industry professionals featuring news, commentary, equipment resources, and original articles
Like all of you, I am constantly trying to push myself to improve as a photographer. Honing our craft is paramount to our continued success and part of the fun of our profession. With that in mind, this year I am looking forward to sharing ideas and techniques that have aided me in my ongoing pursuit of perfection.
Images play a major role in defining how we come to know architecture and interior
spaces. Because photography is pivotal in understanding the built environment, choosing a professional to photograph your project is a most important consideration.
If you’re an architectural photographer looking to have an excellent new year of jobs with good client experiences, communication, and expectations, we have an awesome tool for you!
Just writing about my first book – Budapest Architecture – here makes my heart beat fast.
Before I jump into sharing the how behind this project, I think it is important to tell you the why. Since you’re reading this post on Mike Kelley’s APALMANAC, I assume you’ve already come across his book New Architecture Los Angeles.
Tasked with photographing and documenting spaces and structures mostly for commercial purposes, a lot of what is produced in our genre of photography will be hard pushed to be considered a work of art, especially considering its technical and sometimes rigid nature.
Select individuals however seem to have something extra that allows them to push their work into something greater, something more than simple information about the subject at hand.
Melbourne’s Southbank by Beulah Tower is poised to become the tallest building in the southern hemisphere once completed. The two-tower megadevelopment will eventually rise to 366 meters (1,200 feet) and transform Australia’s ‘garden city.’
The project was born out of an international competition held back in 2018 which was eventually won by a co-authored design by UN Studio and Cox Architecture.
Visualizers and renderers get such bad rap within our industry. Whether that stems from a concern of photographers becoming obsolete or simply ignorance on how much talent and skill some of these creatives possess – I really don’t know. For me personally, I continue to be inspired by how the best visualizers in the game keep pushing the envelope, exploring new ways to showcase their clients’ yet-to-be-built projects.
This latest edition of Story of an Image brings us back to Shanghai as we take a look at an image from a commissioned shoot of Foxconn’s Headquarters building designed by KRIS YAO | ARTECH. The spotlighted image ended up being the final piece of a puzzle to placing the building in its context for the viewer.
There a several famous sports-related quotes related to basics and fundamentals, but to paraphrase many of them…to become a highly skilled master of your craft, you have to master the basics. Several years ago when I photographed my first architecture-related job (it was a modest property for a real estate listing), I honestly had no idea what I was doing.
As we approach the twentieth anniversary of the attacks carried out on September 11th, 2001, I continue to be affected by the ability of architecture to encourage the public’s memory to endure and, in the best examples, help them heal as well. The National September 11 Memorial in New York City is one such example.
It’s (finally) Olympics time again, and you know what that means – it’s time to talk Olympics venue architecture – a topic fraught with divergent opinions on whether or not it makes sense to hold the games (and thus house said games) in a different city every couple of years. The economic and environmental impacts of the games aside, the Olympic Games have given rise to some of the most iconic architecture this planet has ever seen.
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.
Justin Szeremeta
Lexi Taciak
György Palkó
Ramon Portelli
Matthew Anderson
Rob van Esch
Dane Alonso