In Focus is Archinect's recurring series dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better. What has attracted them to architecture? How do they work? What type of equipment do they use? What do they think about seeing their work in blogs?
For this installment, we interviewed Imagen Subliminal, a New York and Madrid-based practice run by Miguel de Guzman and Rocío Romero.
What is your relationship with architecture? What drew you to architecture, as photographers?
We are both architects that started their work as photographers during college. Miguel de Guzman studied at ETSAM Madrid and after some years of combining architectural practice and photography, founded ImagenSubliminal and became a full time architectural photographer. Rocio Romero got her Architecture degree at Granada and studied photography in Madrid where she joined ImagenSubliminal. Our training made us naturally focus in architectural photography as it is a way to keep thinking and somehow working as Architects. Its provides also the chance to visit and discuss amazing buildings with the team that created them.
What is it like working as a team and how does that effect your photographic process? How do you
two divide the labor?
After working several years together, we actually are based in two different locations: Miguel in New York City and Rocio in Madrid. Each one of us shoot in an specific area but usually we do planning and postproduction together. That keeps us focused and evolving together technically and in ideas.
Describe how you work... who are your clients?
We think that the architectural photographer serves as a translator between architect’s ideas and the public.
Our clients are mainly architectural firms but also editorial, developers, construction and real estate companies. We like to keep a close connection with our clients, share ideas and experiment together. We think that the architectural photographer serves as a translator between architect’s ideas and the public. It is important to have a good understanding of the client’s work process behind a building to be able to choose the best way to communicate it.
Besides photography, we find it also exciting to work on Architectural short films. The base language in which we started to work is the language of architectural photography, but we wanted to push it way beyond. As an experimental media, we can play with a greater freedom and it is still very permeable to the contamination of ideas and techniques that come from other languages such as the cinema, advertising, musical videos, fashion films, video art, etc.
Thanks to the technical equipment available, it is possible to achieve high quality films with low production cost. With the internet as a broadcasting system, architectural film is becoming a powerful media full of possibilities. We also like to experiment with 360 VR or anything that can help us to develop new ways to tell stories about architecture.
Do you mostly work in a specific region? What is the travel schedule like?
We have two bases: New York City and Madrid. From there we can travel wherever necessary. Since last year, we have taken pictures in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, China, and elsewhere.
What are your goals when capturing buildings in photographs?
We understand Architecture as something beyond materiality, its not just about the game of light over the volumes, its a complex environment that includes in the design many social, economical and political issues. The architectural object is a developer and mediator of social relations, a cultural construction that evolves. There are many layers of information that we would like to introduce in the image.
Our goal is to get everyone to experience it.
The communication of architecture is fundamental in this process of cultural construction; in fact, the history of architecture coincides with that of the media that represents it: There is an architecture with vanishing points which coincides with the invention of perspective, just as there is an architecture of form board models, of Catia, Rhino or Revit, an architecture of photography in black and white: static, geometric, heroic.
Today, there is also a moody, atmospheric architecture in which action, experience and time are just as, if not more so, important than the subject itself. Architects often build something that can't be seen, only lived. Our goal is to get everyone to experience it.
How do you create cohesion in your overall body of work, as two photographers working
together?
The cohesion exists because we share the same ideas and also same work process and tools. We also keep a constant discussion and review of each others work and distribute tasks on the same project.
What are your thoughts about including people in your photos? Is it important to
photograph a building in use, or by itself?
We introduce simulations or fictions that reveal realities that are not directly visible or not yet present at the moment of the shot
It depends on the project but we usually like to include people in order to help to develop a narrative. We even introduce fictional characters that personalize the architecture we show. Sometimes it is possible to capture the real life on the site, but we like to recreate a possible life with actors so we can show how the ideal experience is, and reinforce the architect’s idea on the use of the building. The film / photos become a user’s guide on the use of the building. We think that this fictional life provides a more intense experience and information about the real building than the abstract empty images.
We introduce simulations or fictions that reveal realities that are not directly visible or not yet present at the moment of the shot. Its very important for us to make these simulations evident to let the spectator notice that there is a game. Architectural ideas can be beyond reality.
What are your favorite pieces of equipment?
Our base equipment is a digital camera with tilt-shift lenses, but we use whatever we find interesting and think will help the photos or film: stabilizer gimbal, crane, drone, 360 camera, sports camera, sliders...
Do you guys work alone?
Usually we do, but we also work together sometimes, shooting at the same time. When shooting film we build a team depending on specific needs of the project (drone pilot, assistant, sound...).
How do you feel about seeing your photographs on blogs and websites?
We love to collaborate with online media. We consider the broadcast of the projects in which we are involved as a part of our job, and also we could’t consider architectural video without internet media.
Imagen Subliminal Architectural Photography + Film was founded by architect and architectural photographer Miguel de Guzmán. The firm, comprised of Miguel de Guzman and Rocío Romero, is a New York and Madrid-based practice whose work is commissioned by many internationally renowned architecture, construction, and real estate firms.
Imagen Subliminal’s photographs have been published worldwide in print magazines such as Architect, Dwell, El Croquis, Arquitectura Viva, A+U Japan, Domus, Casabella, Mark, C3, and many other books and newspapers. The practice also collaborates with online media as Archdaily, Dezeen, Designboom, and Divisare.
Imagen Subliminal’s film work has been displayed at MAXXI Rome, Centre Pompidou Paris, and architecture film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Budapest, Santiago, and Seoul.
You can view more of their work here.
1 Comment
True, an Architect's space perception skills extend from mere 3D visualization as they can identify the views / vistas / perspectives with the Spatial planning in context to the Forms, so Architects fare better in Architectural photography than professional photographers who may not be Architects.
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