Light Extracts

“The invention of photography has undoubtedly influenced our perception of the world around us. For architecture, it has been critical in shaping our interpretation of buildings and their surroundings.”

“By their very nature, photographs alter and distort a subject, omitting some characteristics and features, emphasizing others.”

Preface XIII

“The architectural profession’s conventional approach to photography has led to the dominance of one particular way of ‘seeing’ buildings. Newly finished buildings are fetishized, the importance of eye catching visual appeal, usurping the depiction of architectural interrelationships, spatial qualities and patters of use. The typical architectural photograph freezes a building at the ‘zero hour’ in a sanitized state of perfection.”

“With such a wealth of visual information remaining outside the sphere of architectural discussion, it would seem appropriate to re-evaluate the mono-methodological attitude towards the documentation of buildings.”

Preface XV

“Having established the nature and limitations of convention, research will be conducted to classify alternative approaches in architectural photography, and explore their potential value to professional criticism. Representative examples will be scrutinized in more detail to evaluate why different photographic techniques highlight distinct architectural features.”

Preface XVII

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“By varying the focus and exposure time, the artist can emphasize or sacrifice any part he wants, and depending on how he feels, go from extremes of powerful shadow and light to effects of softness and suavity in the same site and subject.”

Page 4

“Ruskin said, ‘a square inch of man’s engraving is worth all the photographs that were every dipped in acid.”

Page 5

“Analysing the writings of Walter Benjamin, Beatriz Colomina postulates that ‘Le Corbusier’s architecture was the result of his positioning behind the camera’. Throughout his career, Le Corbusier continually relied on photographs as a tool for promoting his vision and ideas.”

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“”Moholy-Nagy declared that through this ‘new instrument of vision’, we have an enlargement and sublimation of our application of space’.

“No longer interested in the detail of ornament, these new photographic approaches strikingly rendered a building as two dimensional aesthetic composition, a juxtaposition of surface, plane, light and shadow. As architects began to pursue spaces and forms that would lend themselves to photographic rendition on the printed page, the nature of architecture itself would shift. In order for modernism’s manifesto to be communicated, the building had to become photogenic rather than merely photographic.”

“The established photographer F.R.Yerburg, was replaced by a young partnership, Dell and Wainwright. Their work became illustrative of the conventional approach to architectural photography. In full sun light, strongly cast shadows and dynamic wide-angle views would flatter a building, emphasizing its volumetric form and planar surfaces. When printed in the pages of the latest journals, Dell & Wainwright’s formal abstraction possessed both a visual coherence and proportional harmony. The Architect’s Journal would praise their approach at the ‘ideal that designers had in their imaginations’.

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“Regional identity or con text had been purged in favour of eye-catching imagery and visual style. A modern building set in the Oxfordshire countryside presented no differently to the work of an Italian rationalist in Lombardy.”

“’The fundamental event of the modern ages is the conquest of the world as picture.’ Martin Heidegger”

Page 14

“Some of the most prominent relationships developed between: Le Corbusier and Lucian Hervé Mies Van de Rohe and Bill Engdahl and Richart Neutra with Julius Shulman.”

“It was Shulman’s belief that the architectural photographer was ‘in the same business of selling architecture to the public’. Photographing a building in optimum conditions, for him, the final product of architecture was its immortalizing photograph.”

Page 15

“For Stoller, the successful architectural photograph embodied the purity of an architects intentions, even if they contradicted the qualities exhibited by a building’s physical manifestation.”

“In Mary N. Woods’ recent publication Beyond the Architect’s Eye, she questions how the ‘Stollerized’ image can really help us understand how a building is used and experienced over time. The geometric purity and emptiness demanded by architectural photography’s conventions has led to the dehumanization of architecture towards abstract form.”

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“Our perception and understanding of architecture continues to be shaped by photographs taken using the conventions of modernism, uncritically flattering a building and envisioning it as a part of a utopian pseudo-reality.”

Commissioned by the architect

Taken at or soon after buildings completion

Depict a buildings volumetric form and planar surfaces

No signs of inhabitation or use

Capturing using large format cameras on high resolution film

Page 22

“Photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy would commend the medium’s truthfulness, ‘in the vision we may say that we see the world with entirely different eyes.’”

Page 27

“A photographs, subjectivity becomes immediately apparent as soon as we compare the work of two different photographers addressing the same subject matter. Each photographer will use the camera to manipulate his or her images, to most convincingly construct their own intended narrative. As the critic John Szarkowski said, ‘photography is a system of visual editing… the number of possibilities is not finite but infinite’.”

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“Despite its subjectivity, the way we are led to interpret the architectural image is based on the assumption that it shows us the truth.”

“Following the modernist agenda, the photograph maintains it unhindered objectively, its apparent scientific precision enabling images of the latest buildings to be flaunted as indisputable reality.”

Page 30

“Martin Heidegger pointed out that the revolutions of the modern world have only served to further accentuate the supremacy of sight and heighten its adverse effects. Coming into the 21st century. Heidegger’s premise still holds true. In the opening pages of Towards a Philosophy on Photography, Vilem Flusser writes, ‘man forgets that he produces images in order to find his way in the world, now he tries to find his way in images.”

“So successful at idealizing our world, the photographic image has supplanted reality itself as a benchmark for defining beauty.”

Page 31

“Juliani Pallasmaa’s polemic, The Eyes of the Skin. He makes a case against western culture’s ocular-centric search for the memorable visual image, claiming that architecture has become merely ‘an art of the printed image fixed by the camera.’”

“Photographing a person in the same way, with strong upward looking perspectives and high contrast shadows, would immediately invoke the imagery of the dictator – Hitler, Stalin. The architect Adolf Loos most forcefully rejected the camera as a promotional tool, relishing the fact that his buildings were difficult to photograph.”

“It is my greatest pride that the interiors which I have created are totally ineffective in photographs. I have to forego the honor of being published in the various architectural magazines.”

“Pinpointing the reciprocity between the modern movement photography, he expresses concern for the current popularity of websites such as Archdaily and Dezeen, exemplifying ‘an architectural culture that no longer has interest in anything but its own image.’ There would seem to be a danger that architecture has become ‘trapped by the expectations of the customer’, architectural design and criticism becoming no more than exercise in publicity.”

Page 33

“When referring to the Bauhaus, Walter Benjamin suggests that a desensitization initiated by modernism, has impeded our ability to have profound experience and cognitive thought. In a similar vein, David Harvey suggests that a lack of depth in modern day expressions has resulted from ‘the loss of temporality and the search for instantaneous impact’.”

“It seems paradoxical that the architectural image should only focus on a building itself, when in reality the backdrop to a building is crucial to the way it is experienced. Without context, the building is like an actor without a stage or set.”

Page 34

“It seems crucial that the architectural profession becomes aware of the conventional image’s main characteristics – a promotional tool, always inherently subjective.”

Page 36

“The architectural photograph is taken with one of two primary purposes, either, to produce and ‘objective’ documentary that will act as evidence in support of a specific argument, or to convey emotional and sensory experience by exploiting the photograph’s surrealistic potential. Part 1, subdivides the main ‘Alternative Approaches’, documentary and emotive.”

Page 42

Contextual

Used in architectural professional criticism

Concerned for the way a building relates to its environment

Include elements of a surrounding landscape or cityscape

Wide-angle photographs taken in sharp focus

“Capturing forgotten relics of the industrial revolution, Eric de Mare is widely regarded to have been Britain’s most distinguished architectural photographer of the 20th Century.”

“Edwin Smith used a similar composition strategy in his poetic evocations of place. However, unlike de Mare, Smith’s Photographs were a romantic reflection on traditional ways of life.”

“Hisao Suzuki is perhaps the most celebrated contextual architectural photographer today.”

“Whilst his compositions create dialectic tension between city and landscape, neither assumes precedence, the two components having seemingly grown together (Figure 4-2). Suzuki insists that his images are ‘an accurate record’, the inclusion of the environment ensuring their objectivity. Swiss photographer Paolo Rosselli takes a slightly different approach, using elements of the city to contextualize architecture. Recreating the fleeting viewpoints of passers-by, he playfully layers disparate elements of the cityscape, emphasizing the paradox between the dynamism of the city and the stasis of its buildings (Figure 4-3).”

“The contextual photograph may assist the architect to appreciate how a building relates to its wider surroundings and to understand the dynamic processes to which a building is subjected.”

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A ‘New Objectivity’

Precise and codified techniques

No signs of inhabitation

Scientific and seemingly ‘objective’

Images in sharp focus with a high level of detail

Fine arts photographs exhibited in museums and galleries

“Inspired by the earlier work of Werner Mantz, Bernard and Hilla Becher were central to the development of this ‘New objectivity’. Key figures at the famed Dusseldorf School, they used a precise analytical method to taxonomically record structures of the industrial landscape.”

“The Dusseldorf School’s ‘objective’ approach relied on a technical rigour and aversion to habitation that exceeded even that of the conventional publicity image, Paradoxically, whilst contrasts of scale, from minute detail to superstructure are explored, reference to human scale is always absent.”

“The ‘pseudo-scientific’ images of ‘New Objectivity’, may allow typological relationships to be drawn between analogous subjects, through the identification of common themes and variables features. Without signs of habitation, these images can facilitate an analytical and variable features. Without signs of habitation, these images can facilitate an analytical appraisal of characteristics such as form, rhythm, repetition, colour and texture.”

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Mechanized Monotony & Globalization

Provide a wider political and social commentary

Remark on the effects of mechanization and globalization

Fine arts photographs exhibited in museums and galleries

Sharp images taken using large format cameras.

“Photographer’s including Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams would critique the monotonous homogeneity of architecture in the Mid-West.”

“The movement’s independence, allowed him to deliver a socio-political commentary on the built environment contrary to the views of the architectural profession. Ironically, it was photographs endorsed by the architectural professions, such as Shulman’s Case Study Houses, that had inspired the faceless developments now subject to so much criticism.”

“Over the last thirty years, architecture has increasingly become a vehicle for communicating social and political statements.”

“Unlike Sturth, Gursky employs digital manipulation to emphasize the automated soullessness of modern living. Printing images up to five meters in width, he exaggerates the way in which small constituent parts make up a vast unified whole.”

“Beyond the drawing board, it is vitally important that architects understand and respond to the wider socio-political scene. This type of photographic approach may help architects engage with contemporary issues of concern.”

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Cityscape & Country

Interest in the urban landscape not individual buildings

Incorporate traces of inhabitation

Document everyday interactions between people and places

Embrace signs of age and use

“Inspired by Eugene Atget’s 19th century photographs of Paris, Berenice Abbott spent the 1930’s documenting the changing face of New York. Rather than pointing her lens towards the newest spectacles of construction, Abbott focused on illustrating the city’s evolving streetscapes as a whole. Juxtaposing new and old, her fragmented views emphasize the underlying social anxiety towards rapid change in New York. In more recent years, Gabriele Basilico has recorded the character of contemporary urban industrial landscapes. Working predominantly in Europe, his work contemplates the relationships between individual buildings and their wider urban context.”

“Moving outside the metropolis, Walker Evans spent the 1930’s documenting rural America during the Great Depression.”

Page 56

“For Evans, it was crucial that he captured not only the built environment but also the way in which it was used. Considered to be an amateur mainstream architectural photographers, Evans’ photographs were simple documents of real people in everyday environments.”

“Against an almost prop-like background, he juxtaposed signs of life, evocatively expressing a sense of time and place.”

“Thomas Fletcher promoted a similar social agenda in his photo essay documenting Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh, India. Fletcher’s iconoclastic approach similarly relied on the interplay between architecture and occupant, giving the architecture a human scale and atmosphere not experienced from more conventional viewpoints.”

“The ‘Cityscape and Country’ approach relates the built environment to its users, and documents the forces of time, wear and decay. An enhanced appreciation of these factors may help us design more sensitively for the future.”

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Photojournalism

Provide a wider social commentary

Human beings are the focus of the image

In search of the spectacular moment

Examine the way in which people inhabit the built environment

Relatively low resolution images taken using fast hand-held cameras

“Even if only as a backdrop to the social interactions and events of life, street photography inevitably recorded the built environment.”

“French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson fathered a generation that could search for ‘The Decisive Moment’, an ephemeral instant in which people interact with each other and their surroundings in unusual and unexpected ways. For Bresson, buildings set the stage upon which people could make an improvised performance. Developing this idea, the American photojournalist Robert Frank recurrently used architectural elements for expressive effect. In much of his work, windows mirrors and doors frame parts of his images, emphasizing how the memories of life can be captured as a sequence of moments.”

By the 1960’s, photojournalists in Britain had become increasingly concerned with photographing architectural subjects.”

“As John Donate explained, their intention was to describe the ‘experience of a slice of time of a building.’ In 1961, Roger Mayne documented the elevated walkways of the park Hill Estate, Sheffield, aiming to highlight the social failure of post-war housing.”

“The presence of people into this type of photograph can reveal the suitability of a particular space for its intended function. We are led to question how architecture may encourage or discourage a sense of community and social interaction.”

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Time & Decay

Illustrate the effects of time on architecture

Depict processes of change and decay

Often capture buildings in states of ruin

Documentary for the fine arts and academic research

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“An appreciation of architecture’s temporal qualities is important to a sympathetic appraisal of the old, as well as to an understanding of how new buildings will evolve with time. We begin to question the current stand of the profession, resisting the inevitable forces of time and decay.”

Page 65

Formal Abstraction

Abstract artwork created from fragmented compositions

Narrow fields of view and unconventional viewpoints

The image has a pleasing aesthetic composition irrespective of the architecture

Explores ideas of rhythm, materiality, light and shadow, form and detail

Used in architectural monographs and mainstream media

“’Pictures’ do not record the actually physical qualities of an architectural design, but rather aim to become works of visual art in their own right.”

“Having said this, the work of abstract photographers can describe a lot about a particular building and an architects original conceptual intentions. Fractured views can reveal qualities often overlooked in conventional architectural photography. Some of the ideas expressed most prominently through formal abstraction include: rhythm, materiality, light and shadow, form and detail.”

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“Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand were some of the first photographers to explore the potential of abstract photography in the modern city.”

“Photographer Richard Bryant believes that,’ in terms of line or texture. The less you show the more you communicate.’ In his view, depicting highly selective elements of a building can most effectively communicate an architect’s intentions.

“To maximize impact for publication, Judith Turner and Helene Binet photograph architectural subjects as two-dimensional interrelationships between abstract lines and shapes. In Binet’s acclaimed photo series documenting Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals, she concentrates on depicting architectural qualities of texture, material and light.”

“While this type of image may not provide a complete understanding of a building, its use in combination with conventional images can help to give insights into architect’s original intentions. In addition, we may acquire a greater understanding of qualities such as rhythm, materiality, light and shadow, form and detail.”

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Experimental

Provide a direct critique on architecture

Question the true objectivity of the photograph as a representative tool

Fine arts photographs exhibited in museums and galleries

Use of digital manipulation techniques or unconventional viewpoints

“Herzog & de Meuron have”

“Commissioned both Thomas Ruff and Jeff Wall to document their works. Both photographers are of the same opinion that a holistic understanding of a spatial reality can never be gained through image alone.”

“Ruff and wall have bother commented on the architecture of Mies van de Rohe, believing that the photographic image has exaggerated the beauty of his work. By providing new unfamiliar viewpoints, they attempt to alter and observer’s perception of some of his most famous buildings. Ruff reinterprets the Barcelona Pavilion through the use of digital motion blur effects. In contradiction to the monolithic stasis in which the building is usually portrayed, his images portray the dynamism of a fleeting moment, disregarding the detailed finesse. Wall takes a different approach, photographing the pavilion in the early morning before opening. The mundane routine of cleaning the fine polished stonework removes the building from its utopian pedestal, placing it within the banal realities of everyday life.”

“The experimental approach may help us to inform new insights into familiar subjects, challenging previous opinions and conclusions.”

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Emotive Intent

Pictorialism

Convey emotional and sensory experience

Feeling is more important than accurate documentation

Emphasis on lighting conditions and atmospheric effects

Often blurred or with soft focus

Reliant on darkroom and post-processing effects

Sometimes incorporate people

“The purpose of these images was to stir up the experiential memories of an observer, to elicit an almost physical emotional response.”

“At the beginning of the 20th Century, Alfred Stieglitz turned his attention towards the evolving streetscape of America’s great metropolis, New York.”

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“In perhaps one of his most enigmatic photographs. Stieglitz depicts the soft shadowy silhouette of New York’s Flatiron building on a snowy winter’s day. The building is masked behind a fore and mid-ground dominated by skeletal forms of winter trees covered by a blanket of fresh snow. Relying on the technological development of faster lenses, he took many of his photographs in poor lighting and seemingly hostile weather. Coupled with these adverse conditions.”

“In Britain, the main advocate of pictorialism was Frederick Evans. Most famous for his photographs of British and French cathedrals, Evans’ images were meant to be seen as evocations rather than objective records. His fragmented views tried to capture emotions and connotations of spirituality, rather than depicting the exact physical characteristics the buildings themselves. Bringing to photography what joseph Gandy had brought to drawing over a century earlier, the depth of contrast, strong cast light and soft focus on Evan’s photographs reinforced the sacred identity of the space, hinting at a heavenly presence.”

“Pictorialism can assist an architect to appreciate factors beyond those conveyed by conventional images. Seeking to communicate the sensory and emotional experience of a building. The images may provoke recollections of past experience.”

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Atmospheric

Low light and night time photography

Emotional and sensory stimulation

Atmospheric effects after perception

No inhabitation

“For British photographer Mark Atkins, ‘magic and fantasy have their home in unexceptionally everyday streets of the contemporary city.”

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“Hans Danuser’s photo documentary of Peter Zumthor’s saint Benedict Chapel is perhaps the most complete building study carried out under unconventional atmospheric conditions.”

“His images seem to be almost phenomenological in effect. Evoking primitive notions of our connection to nature.”

“The atmospheric photograph can provide fresh viewpoints through which h we can interpret architectural subjects. Veiling atmospheric effects, redefine spatial relationships and highlight features previously overlooked.”

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Photojournalism

“The application of ‘photojournalism’ in professional criticism was briefly explored at the beginning of the 1970’s in the Architectural Review’s notorious series of editorials, ‘Manplan’. With a clearly political objective, the editor of the Architectural Review, H. de C. Hastings commissioned a number of well-known contemporary photojournalists to document the harsh realities of everyday British life. Using small cameras and faster films, these photographers could capture entirely new viewpoints. With spontaneity previously impossible.”

Page 84

“The ‘Manplan’ series had a strong social objective, all of the photographs focusing on the way in which human beings interact with their environment. Its main aim was to advocate a greater consideration for the social responsibilities of architecture, in lightof the failures of modernism in the preceding decades.”

Time & Decay

“Without undermining the importance of the conventional architectural photograph, Mead believes that architecture should be understood as a process that continues long after the construction of a building is completed. In Mead’s opinion, photographs taken when a building is first completed can only show us the very beginning of a story that becomes ever more intricate and complex over time. In his view, ‘building revisits’ photographs that depict human occupancy and traces of ‘wear and tear’ can enable a much more scrupulous critique of a building, highlighting its true successes or failures.”

Page 86

“They are the work of Tony-Ray Jones.”

“The images depict children playing against a background of anonymous urban estates. Attempting to ‘make the best’ of their environment, the children offer a counterpoint to the apparent bleakness and desolation of their surroundings. This juxtaposition reinforces the notion that the environment is not suited to purpose. The buildings and concrete surfaces appear house and inhabitant.”

Page 96

“For the Architectural Review, the images were highly successful of conveying the intended message. Even if this was to be detriment of the publication itself Hastings successfully expressed his deep-seated social concerns to an architectural audience. However, many readers, angry at the critical appraisal of their work, cancelled their subscriptions.”

“To the contemporary observer, the photographs are of considerable interest from both an architectural and anthropological perspective. Not only do they express the concerns of the time in which they were taken, but also highlight potential mistakes to be avoided in the future. Whilst it must be recognized that they depict an exaggerated view of reality, they were ahead of their time, provoking a valuable debate on architecture’s social obligations, as relevant today as in 1970.”

Page 97

Convention

“They are the work of Dell & Wainwright, a highly regarded partnership in modern architectural photography.”

“Despite that the house had only been completed for a matter of months, the articles pointed out the success of unusual planning, ‘proven thorough use’.”

“The images depict the exterior and interior of the ‘Miramonte’ house. The external photographs pay particular attention to the proportions of the facades, and examine the relationship between volume and space.”

“For Dell & Wainwright, the photographs were simply an accurate documentation of a building. Their technical rigour ensuring validity. However, it is clear that the images were curated to maximize their effectiveness as a promotional tool.”

“To the contemporary observer, the photographs provide an understanding of the building’s volumetric form and spatial arrangement. They also convey a sense of the aspirational lifestyle they sought to promote. However, they provide very little contextual information regarding the occupants and everyday functionality.”

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Towards an Expanded Vision

“The present study recognizes that whiles the conventional image has its merits. It also possesses significant limitations. By restricting ourselves to this one photographic methodology, we may be unnecessarily limiting the scope of architectural understanding.”

Page 122

Recommendations for further work

“Experimental photographic studies would be a useful tool in future research. An architectural subject would be photographed using a range of different photographic approaches.”

Page 124

“Robert Elwall’s Building With Light: An international History of Architectural Photography provides an authoritative chronological overview of the history of architectural photography.”

“Cervin Robinson and Joel Heischman follow a similar vein in their historical survey, Architecture Transformed: History of the photography of buildings from 1839 to the Present.”

Page 126

“Walter Benjamin in his A Short History of Photography undertook one of the earliest discussions, coming to terms with a new world of reproduction. Two early seminal works criticizing and theorizing photography are Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida and Susan Sontag’s on photography.”

“Collecting a series of essays by eminent scholars, Sitework – Architecture in Photography since Early Modernism, published by the Photographer’s Gallery. Brings together a range of concerns. Demonstrating that photography cannot be viewed as an objective science, the essays advocate that the only way to truly understand a building is through physical encounter. The introductory pages of Camera Constructs – Photography, Architecture and the Modern City, edited by Andrew Higgott and Timothy Wray draws together a wide range of literary sources, to establish their argument against the uncritical manner in which buildings are photographed.”

“The most scathing attack against architecture photography is perhaps Tom Picton’s 1979 article for the Architect’s Journal – ‘The Craven Image’. He condemns the soulless way in which buildings are depicted, pleading for a more sympathetic approach from the professional community.”

“Mary N. Woods’ recent book, Beyond the Architect’s Eye – Photographs and the American Built Environment is perhaps the most persuasive study to date.”

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Media and Perception

“Again, this is very difficult to answer and is prone to generalisations. I tend to think that images are mostly consumed not scrutinised – our culture generally is one of consumption not literacy. People just glimpse things and swiftly move on (I’m sure I often do too), but the right kind of presentation of images can encourage you to slow down and look at them more searchingly.”

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