What is Architectural Photography?
At first, the answer to this question appears obvious – photos of buildings. However, this simple definition glosses over nuanced aspects of the discipline. Architectural photography is the interpretive depiction of the built environment in photographic images. This encompasses the totality of the man-made physical world.
While photographers don’t have control over the design of architectural projects, they do have discretion over the way those projects are rendered visually. A single architectural work will be viewed by more people through images rather than in person, so the photographer occupies an intermediary role between the designer and the public.
National Farmers Bank of Owatonna, Owatonna MN. Architect: Louis Sullivan. Jet Lowe/Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, HABS MINN,74-OWAT, 28
What role do architectural photographers play?
Architectural photographers are interpreters. Through a process of seeing, identifying, and describing, they clarify the essential qualities of a site into visual form. This transcends the role of a passive functionary. It involves a series of decisions that determines a feeling conveyed in the resulting images.
They select vantage points and decide the precise location of the camera in space. Minor differences in camera positioning have an enormous impact on results. From a given vantage point, the photographer selects the field of view. This is the amount of the scene occupying the frame. The lens’ focal length controls the field of view and spatial compression. Compression is the apparent proximity of nearer and farther objects as they appear in the frame. Wide lenses expand, long lenses compress.
Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton NJ. Architect: Steven Holl Architects.
Outdoors, decisions about lighting and weather conditions are among the most important that a photographer makes. The quality of lighting plays a huge part in the emotional tone of the image. Sunlight can range from direct and hard to indirect and soft. The angle of the sun changes with the seasons, modulating its direction and intensity over the course of the year. Indoors, photographers decide whether the lighting should be ambient or if supplemental lighting is needed in order to alter the existing atmosphere of the space.
The dynamic element of motion adds further complexity. People and vehicles can be shown frozen in time or rendered with fluidity. People are often included in architectural photos to indicate the size of the building and the way it is used. The photographer has discretion over the inclusion of people and their positioning. They need to fit into the frame in a way that improves the composition and their actions should help illustrate the function of the project.
Photographers weigh all of these factors and more during the course of their work.
How are these photographs used?
Firms involved in project design constitute the majority of those who commission architectural photography. They will use the images to market their services to prospective clients. They will publish the images, and thus their work, in industry specific publications. The images will be used as promotional content on social media channels and will often be used to illustrate award submissions.
Architectural photos convey the spirit of a place more so than factual information. They are not intended to be disposable. Often, they will represent a project over a long duration of time. Long after the physical structure has vanished, the images will stand in for it in the historical record.
There are other photographic niches where the built environment is the primary subject. They are real estate photography and survey photography. While overlapping in scope, these differ in appearance, serving a different set of clients and purposes.
BMO Tower, Chicago IL. Architect: Goettsch Partners.
The information conveyed in real estate photography is equal parts factual and emotional. Quickly produced and often uncredited, these images serve the immediate purpose of selling property. They lose most of their utility once the transaction is complete.
Survey photography is pure factual information. Conducting aerial surveys, documenting construction processes, or aiding in tax assessments, the production of these images prioritizes function over aesthetics. The photographer here is an anonymous neutral technician.
The architectural photographer plays the role of a surrogate viewer. Their decisions about lighting and composition and the inclusion of dynamic elements describe the spirit of a place. Beyond depicting how a place looks, they convey how it feels, allowing a global audience to experience and understand projects they might never see in person.
Architectural photography is more than the act of aiming a camera at buildings and pressing a button. It’s a nuanced art form. Practitioners use a mix of technical facility and interpretive ability to describe the structures and the environments we inhabit. The built environment is one of the greatest achievements of humanity and architectural photography is a means of sharing and celebrating the ongoing process of shaping our world.