LOOK FOR LONGER
Looking at a still photograph is proactive. You decide to look and for how long, to linger and explore the image or walk away. All too often even still images are flashed in front of us momentarily reducing our involvement to a passive onlooker. We are in danger of accepting bad and mediocre imagery as normal, we are looking but not seeing. Photographs of architecture capture more than a building, they create a legacy in time and place.
#Lookforlonger #look4longer is what we want everyone to do.
In a world of scrolling though images on screen we miss small details that are important but not obvious, yet crucial in portraying a building to a client.
Three photographers who were shortlisted in the Architectural Photography Awards 2021 share images they want you to "look for longer".
1. Prof Alex de Rijke both an architect , Director of dRMM and the photographer of this project.
"I want people to look at these two photos and think there’s something special and surreal about this place. But the harder you look, the more you realise it’s all made with simple everyday stuff. The building is wood, colour and light, and shot on an iPhone camera."
2.Kris Provoost
'Eden of the Orient'
"I want viewers to consider the overwhelming effect the escalating density of housing development is having on population and environment as these mountainous estates envelope all but a few slivers of nature."
3.Brad Feinknopf shot for MM Architect
"Viewers inevitably fail to see, on the right, mid frame, two deer grazing in the moonlight. Once you realise their presence it elevates the shot, giving it a magical air and establishing the sense of place."
Photographer Martine Hamilton Knight Edited from a feature in the World Architecture Festival newsletter June 2022
Architectural photography is not a male preserve. Previous APA new letters may have given that impression. Internationally there are plenty of accomplished women. Let me introduce you to Martine Hamilton Knight, an architectural photographer since 1990. From the beginning she vowed to have a career in the profession she loved and have a good family life. Martine chose to work close to home with the intention of rarely being away from her native Nottingham in the UK, overnight. Although that didn't stop her accepting the occasional overseas assignment from local clients, sometimes as far afield as China. Martine's knowledge and familiarity with the East Midlands and its architecture has made her a perfect judge for several RIBA regional awards committees. While she is better known for working with contemporary architects Martine was commissioned by Yale to photographically update the Nottinghamshire edition in the esteemed Pevsner series Buildings of England. This Pevsner was first published over seventy years ago in black and white. Here are three from that huge body of work followed by #photojustonething
Southwell Minster c.1300
Boots D10 Pharmaceutical Building 1932 Architect Owen Williams
All Saints Church, West Markham
Walk the course. Always - if you arrive on site for a shoot, leave the camera in the bag until you’ve thoroughly explored. It might be the most important point in the day. You will make key judgements at this point about lighting, timing, the organisation of spaces, people - in short, everything you need to move forwards productively on a shoot. The worst thing is NOT knowing what’s around the next corner. You might be spending far too much time on what’s in front of you and completely miss the opportunity to capture what you really needed to be doing at that point in the day.
A case in point? Nearly every shot I’ve ever taken! Here’s one where me looking over the edge of this bridge rather than simply walking across it, informed me that if I returned to that spot late afternoon, the light would be penetrating the atrium and if I placed people there too, it would create a rich shot. Architects: Broadway Malyan - National Centre for Sport & Exercise Medicine
#look4longer : This is from a series I did of a long closed casino and restaurant called The Victoria Club. I was originally commissioned to shoot it twenty years ago, and returned in 2018 as a personal project, partially lifting the dust covers, lighting and styling areas as I’d first encountered them 17 years earlier. All the props were found in situ - taken from the still stocked bar with its ancient liquors and cigars. Cocktail Bar, The Victoria Club, Nottingham