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The extraordinary Elrod House, designed for Arthur Elrod in 1968 by John Lautner was another Palm Springs icon we were fortunate to photograph during the PSPF workshop.  Perched high on the ridge at the south end of town, the Elrod House affords panoramic views across the  entire valley.

In a famously cheesy scene from Diamonds Are Forever, James Bond definitely meets his match in the form of Bambi and Thumper who to beat the crap out of him before tossing him into the terrace pool.

As part of the seventh annual Palm Springs Photo Festival, I had been invited by Festival Director Jeff Dunas to conduct a four day practical workshop in Architectural Photography.

After introductions all round, I thought the best way to get started was to direct our collective gaze towards the classic 1952 Palm Springs City Hall designed by Albert Frey.

This was the kind of place that at first glance, could seem underwhelming, as evidenced by the seemingly non-plussed reaction of the group. It was, after all, nearly sixty years old with very developed landscape and suffering from an influx of oversized and rather ill-placed concrete litter bins.

After a quick walk around and discussion about the potential of the place, a more enthusiastic mood prevailed and we were off!

At the Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne, renowned English sculptor Antony Gormley is showing pieces from his MEME series which began in 2007. I was commissioned to document the installation for Gormley’s studio.

“These small solid iron works use the formal language of architecture to replace anatomy and construct volumes to articulate a range of 33 body postures”

Over at the WOHA designed Singapore School of the Arts, the three performance spaces are now almost complete. With lush green walls, and large openings to provide light and a cooling breeze through the building, the award-winning project is essentially a full curriculum secondary school perched atop a performing arts centre.

The Drama Theatre, with a signature WOHA colour scheme, is a tight horseshoe design, resulting in a beautifully rich and intimate space.

In the elegantly spare Recital Hall, a series of concerts have been taking place to fine tune the acoustic settings. As the acoustic engineers waited anxiously for the results, I swear you could hear a pin drop. Which, as it turns out, was a good thing.

On March 3rd, the AIA San Francisco Chapter will open an exhibition of  works by Bay Area architectural photographers curated by Stan Wu . I was invited to contribute four images to the show, which runs at the historic 1917 Hallidie Building until April 22nd.