In Focus is Archinect's new series of features 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?

In this feature, we talk to Turkish photographer team GRIDUO.

Archinect: What is your relationship with architecture? What drew you to architecture, as a photographer?

GRIDUO: We studied visual communication / graphic design. As photographers, what attracts us to architecture are standing still, not capturing moments but having the opportunity to study, explore and improve on angles and framing.

Composition only exists in a two dimensional world. In a three dimensional world there are no boundaries or frames to fix the viewpoint. And in architectural photography we look for the representation of the 3rd dimension in a more open-minded, highly aesthetic graphic way. Our portfolio consists of images that are derived from architecture, but are not necessarily architectural photographs in the usual sense. They are more like architectural imaging, aspirations, ephemera. They derive from a highly subjective approach to photographing the building, form and detail.


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Minus Feld (2009 - typographic experiments, work on various photographs), GRIDUO

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Minus Feld (2009 - typographic experiments, work on various photographs), GRIDUO

Describe how you work... who are your clients?

GRIDUO: We mainly work with architects themselves. We basically wait for a call. And then go for location scouting, look for possible angles, light situations etc. We have a wide range of clients in our portfolio. But most of them are İstanbul based architects.


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Jüdisches Museum (2008 - Berlin, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

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Jüdisches Museum (2008 - Berlin, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

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Jüdisches Museum (2008 - Berlin, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

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Jüdisches Museum (2008 - Berlin, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

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Jüdisches Museum (2008 - Berlin, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

Do you mostly work in a specific region? What is your travel schedule like?

GRIDUO: We are working as full-time assistant/lecturers at a university in Istanbul (İstanbul Bilgi University). Mostly we're having daily trips outside the city, to industrial areas and commercial buildings. But other than the work trips, we're taking every chance to travel. We definitely love to work outside our country. Because our work is universal just as architecture itself.


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Kanyon (2008 - Istanbul, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

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Kanyon (2008 - Istanbul, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

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Kanyon (2008 - Istanbul, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

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Kanyon (2008 - Istanbul, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

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Kanyon (2008 - Istanbul, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

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Kanyon (2008 - Istanbul, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

What is your goal when capturing buildings in photographs?

GRIDUO: Because of our background training, we are highly inspired from graphic design. We basically try to not capture what is perceived directly. Instead of documenting the architecture for explanatory, descriptive purposes with conventional compositions, we go for more dynamic, abstract and innovative approaches by looking for relations between forms, shapes and vectors expressing additional subjective tension.


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BMW Welt (2009 - Munich, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

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BMW Welt (2009 - Munich, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

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BMW Welt (2009 - Munich, Germany), Photography by GRIDUO

What are your thoughts about including people in your photos? Is it important to photograph a building in use, or by itself?

GRIDUO: We like them when they are alone. That gives us much more control. We sometimes use long exposures to include silhouettes of people for added dynamism in the shots.

What are your favorite pieces of equipment?

GRIDUO: Definitely the 17mm tilt-shift lens. Working with a small format camera gives us the possibility of working without a tripod, and that makes searching for different/unique perspectives/angles through the camera easier.


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Exploded House (2009 - Bodrum, Muğla, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

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Exploded House (2009 - Bodrum, Muğla, Turkey), Photography by GRIDUO

Do you work alone?

GRIDUO: In the GRIDUO project, we are working together. But otherwise, we are also doing individual photography projects.

How do you feel about seeing your photographs on blogs and websites?

GRIDUO: As RSS freaks, we definitely get excited and motivated when we come across with our own works but nowadays everybody can post and share the photographs they appreciate, but it is harder to read some critical comments for the works, otherwise it's just copy and paste in similar environments.



GRIDUO is formed of Alican Aktürk and Refik Anadol, both graduate students and teaching assistants in İstanbul Bilgi University Visual Communication Design Department.

Working in the fields of live video/audio performance and architectural photography, the duo is particularly interested in the relationship between architecture and media.