random observations from an itinerant architectural photographer
The July /August 2010 issue of Metropolis magazine features the cover and an eight page story on the Gallery House in San Francisco designed by Ogrydziak / Prillinger Architects. The project was also featured in the ArchDaily blog and quickly picked up by the architectural blogosphere.
The successful entrants of the 2010 PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris were recently announced and I was pleased to have been awarded First Place in the Fine Art – Architecture category with four images selected from my Immediate Future exhibition.
Perhaps the hardest thing to explain to people about photographing architecture is the notion of one being entirely at the mercy of the prevailing elements. There’s none of this taking your time, adjusting the lighting between caramel latte’s in the studio, opening the morning’s mail and then maybe finishing up after a sit down lunch.
On location, everything is in flux. From before the sun is up until well after it is down, the shadows are moving, the conditions are changing around you, requiring an engaged and spontaneous response to capture images that will serve to tell the story at hand. In my experience, assuming you’ve understood the brief, one generally knows what the end result needs to be, just not the exact path you will take to get there.
Most times, the commercial preference is to photograph a project in pristine conditions which in most regions of the world, except perhaps for parts of Europe, would be considered blue skies, crisp sunshine and maybe a few “Simpson’s” clouds to keep it sweet. In Germany, if the much-lauded Dusseldorf school’s output is anything to go by, an ideal day would be flat, shadowless overcast. I mean, shadows are just so subversively opinionated, don’t you think?….. But I digress.
On a clear day, especially in places like California, you know exactly what will happen and while this is certainly good for commercial productivity, it can be limiting creatively as there is always a known, predictable, expected outcome, often well before the images are captured.
My feeling is that unless you are prepared to put yourself out into conditions that are less than optimal, you will never get rewarded with something special, something unique, something unexpected. This somewhat opportunistic approach still requires a deep understanding of the subject, still requires a technical precision and respect for craft, but all in order to respond on a more instinctual level to the unfolding scene before you.
While I’ve long ago given up on the idea that I might manipulate the forces of nature, I’m certainly open to getting out there and mixing it up a bit when the opportunity presents itself. Of course, the majority of what I shoot on assignment is done to show the building in its best light.
Sometimes though, I would argue that it takes the worst light to do that.
In the May/June issue of Capture Magazine, their Australia’s Top Photographer Awards were announced. This is an annual competition with the winners nominated and voted on by their professional peers. Richard Bailey of Sydney took out this years overall award.
I am pleased to report that I was awarded Australia’s Top Architectural Photographer for the fourth year in a row.
The newly opened Red Bull Arena, designed by Rossetti Architects is home to the MLS New York Red Bulls soccer team. Nestled into Harrison, New Jersey and just across from Newark Penn Station, the ribbed, fabric roof cuts a striking silhouette in the heavy industrial landscape.
Indeed there are still several active trucking yards adjacent to the stadium, making for a ready reminder of the area’s heritage.
The new soccer-dedicated stadium puts the fans close to the action on the field. Designed to accommodate a full house of 25,000 spectators, the Red Bull Arena retains an intimacy not attainable within the vast stadiums previously borrowed from the NFL.
Early last year, I was invited to participate in the core program of the Ballarat International Photo Biennale to be held in Australia in September. Having not previously gathered the requisite momentum to mount a solo show of my work, this invitation was just the push I needed to finally make it happen. After settling on a theme for the show,tentatively titled Immediate Future, I threw together a little marquette of the room I was to occupy at the historic Ballarat Art Gallery and began figuring out what could possibly go where.
Remarkably, the photographs of the model became the perfect reference when we set about hanging the show a few days before the opening.
The gorgeous large scale prints were crafted by Brian Gilkes at Pharos Editions. And thanks go to Tugi Balog at Graphic Art Mount in Sydney for the great job with mounting and delivering the final works to the gallery.
More information on the Ballarat International Photo Biennale can be found here.
And stay tuned for more information on future dates for an updated and expanded version of the show in Singapore (late 2009) and Stuttgart (early 2011).
It would seem that not everybody who purchased apartments in WOHA’s award winning The Met in Bangkok was keen to move in straight away. For the first time, the building exterior was clean and devoid of the maintenance gondolas that had plagued our earlier visits. From a distance, one could see that many of the windows had been covered with brown paper to keep the low winter sun from directly hitting the floor boards.This somewhat killed the sleek verticality of the lines.
Access to the individual apartments was impossible (and on a 60 story tower, insanely impractical), so there was nought to do but knuckle down at the computer for a few days going window to window and cleaning off the paper. Unlike a flat, glazed facade, this could be no simple cut and paste job as the random patterns of the balconies, cladding and landscaping all needed to be taken into account.
While it got there in the end, there were times whilst sitting glued to the computer with an aching wrist, that I thought I might just….erm, go blind.
As always, the prevailing weather plays a big role in the success of each day. The Bangkok forecast that day was for passing showers in the afternoon. Dutifully the clouds thickened, the air seemed to thicken and the breeze picked up, carrying with it the smell of the impending rains. And right then, the moment of truth….. that moment when you must decide “do I stay or do I go?”
It’s only a quick shower, right? I mean, it will blow through soon enough?
When the first enormous drops began to pound the pavement, it quickly became obvious that I had made totally the wrong call in electing to stay. But we were a hundred meters from decent shelter and further still from the safe confines of the hotel (where our cumbersome umbrellas lay resting). Weighed down with camera kits and laptops, simply running for it wasn’t an option. As a result, we spent the next hour and a half cowering in a nearby row of public telephone booths to remain, even if only partially, out of the torrential and relentless storm that ensued.
I recently helped a friend update his point’n’shoot camera and was pleasantly surprised by the advances being made in the technology and general ease of use. We celebrated the purchase in a local Montmorency cafe where the resident barista was well known for his decorative prowess.
After reading that the camera offered face recognition technology, we came to same conclusion at the exact same time and did the only thing possible under the circumstances.
