#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.
Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. While we use our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform.
We spoke to Pierre Chatel, the photographer behind @chatelp. A computer scientist by trade, Chatel recently took up architectural photography full time. His work can best be described as 'cool abstraction' thanks to a rare abilities to both discover rare moments in well-known buildings throughout Europe as well as to find the beauty in objects as mundane as storage containers.
What is your relationship to architecture?
Mostly of admiration! I’m not an architect by trade but have been fascinated with modern and contemporary architecture for many years now. I come from the small french archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and the city is made mostly of small wood houses. So when I moved to mainland Europe 18 years ago, I became quite obsessed with the particular feeling of walking on big city roads, surrounded by building of all sizes and shapes. At this time I was studying for becoming a computer scientist, which I did become in the end, so all this aesthetic drive was put aside for a time. But a few months ago, I quit my job in the industry to become an architectural photographer full-time!
View this post on InstagramSolo-building series / / / Pantone 17-4919 TCX / / / 2
A post shared by Pierre Châtel-Innocenti (@chatelp) on
How did @chatelp begin?
I think it really began 2 years ago. Although at first I didn’t enjoy the relative success and followership I have now. It was a hard time for me really, I knew at the time I was not fully happy as a computer engineer and I was looking for a creative outlet outside of work. This is really how it began.
View this post on InstagramAtmospheric series / / / Containers in St Pierre & Miquelon
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What have you hoped to communicate about architecture through your posts?
Part of the fascination for me is about how architecture is so embedded in our lives and yet very few people really pay regular attention to it. In my photography work I try focus on the interaction of these buildings with their environment, with light, rain, clouds… and with people.
For instance, I’m quite fond of the Brutalist style - of which we have many impressive examples in Ile-de-France region where I’m currently living - yet they are commonly perceived as eyesores that some people would like to be destructed. The fact this architectural style has been so deeply associated in French people’s mind with the insecurity of the “banlieues” and big housing block in the last decades is such an interesting phenomenon. I try to convey a more positive image of this legacy.
View this post on InstagramSolo-building series / / / Tours Nuages. This picture is part of the ongoing “Solo-building” photo series - Discover all my 4 current photo series on my page: Solo-building, Minimal, Atmospheric and Interiors. . . . . . #learnminimalism #soulminimalist #paradiseofminimal #pocket_minimal #minimal_lookup #ic_minimal #minimalint #minimalalert #minimal_perfection #tv_simplicity #sky_high_architecture #archi_features #archi_unlimited #architecture_view #arkiromantix #buildingstyles_gf #creative_architecture #icu_architecture #ptk_architecture #sensational_architecture #skyscraping_minimal #skyscraping_magic #srs_buildings #buildingswow #1_unlimited #archi_focus_on #ic_architecture #imaginarymagnitude #rentalmag #photobychatelp
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Does Instagram (or social media in general) affect the way you produce and display your work?
In a big way. You have to think about format of course, about what “works” with the public on these platforms, and be very committed and post regularly if you want to have any followership at all. Instagram can be a very competitive platform in that regard. It’s a love/hate relationship for me: at the personal level I love the interaction I get to have with so many interesting people online, but at the same time - from an artistic perspective - I often find it limitative and exhaustive.
View this post on InstagramAtmospheric series / / / Espaces d’Abraxas by Ricardo Bofill in Noisy-le-Grand. You may recognize it from the last Hunger Games movie which was filmed in part on location! / / / Espaces d'Abraxas de Ricardo Bofill à Noisy-le-Grand. Vous le reconnaîtrez peut-être du dernier film Hunger Games qui a été tourné en partie sur place! . . . . . #soulminimalist #unlimitedminimal #tv_simplicity #minimal_perfection #learnminimalism #paradiseofminimal #sky_high_architecture #archi_features #archi_unlimited #architecture_minimal #architecture_view #arkiminimal #arkiromantix #arquitecturamx #buildingstyles_gf #creative_architecture #espacioenforma #harmonyoflight #icu_architecture #ptk_architecture #rustlord_unity #sensational_architecture #skyscraping_architecture #skyscraping_minimal #skyscraping_magic #srs_buildings #tv_buildings #tv_pointofview #pocket_minimal #buildingswow
A post shared by Pierre Châtel-Innocenti (@chatelp) on
Do you post your work anywhere else online? Is Instagram your social media channel of choice?
Instagram is my main day-to-day channel, but as a photographer I also rely on Unsplash which is a cool copyright-free stock website made by a great Canadian team. It generally gives more stable exposure to my work and I’m quite happy with it :)
View this post on InstagramR A I N B O W / M N M L / / / Detail of the top structure of the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark. It’s an all-transparent observation point over the whole city that was built atop the museum / / / Détail de la structure supérieure du ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Danemark. C'est un point d'observation entièrement transparent, donnant sur toute la ville, construit au sommet du musée.
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What are some of your favorite Instagram profiles to follow?
There are so many!
In architecture my favorites include @jptrsnl - Jeroen has an amazingly coherent and clean minimalistic look; @etna_11 - Jeanette is a good friend from Sweden and she deals with light and facades in an impressive way; @fabricefouillet- a professional photographer probably as obsessed with verticals and light as me - only he is more talented ;). In contemporary photography, I love the work of @julien_kambor
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