Archinect - News

The first architecture photography

2019-07-02T13:51:00-04:00

Shortly after the invention of photography, there was architecture photography. Generous natural lighting, a range of scalable details and a pride of place made architecture a primary subject in the understanding of photographic technology during the first half of the 19th century.

Paris' Boulevard du Temple (1839). Photo by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.

The Daguerreotype was among the first photographic methods when it was invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1839. An image of Paris' Boulevard du Temple taken by Daguerre in the same year is famous for being the first photograph of a person (visible near the lower left corner), but it is also among the first known photographs of an urban scene. Because the photo required a long exposure lasting several minutes, the traffic is rendered invisible while the buildings are reproduced in great detail, allowing them to become the primary focus.

Tuileries Palace (1841). Photo by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.

Cathédrale Notre-D...

Japanese photographer Hisaharu Motada envisions a post-apocalyptic Tokyo

2018-09-10T15:38:00-04:00

The work of Japanese photographer Hisaharu Motada envisions what Tokyo might look like in some version of the future. Offering glimpses of doomsday, Motoda's lithographs depict deserted cityscapes, crumbling buildings, monuments overgrown with weeds, and other markings of a post-apocalyptic world. Picturing familiar Tokyo landscapes devoid of humans and overrun by plant life, Motada captures a sense of both the world′s past and its future. In another series, titled Neo-Ruins, he gives the same treatment to notable works such as the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the Sydney Opera House. Below, a selection of some of his work.

Revelation: Kabukicho I; 2004. Hisaharu Motoda.

Revelation: The Kaminarimon Gate; 2005. Hisaharu Motoda.

Indication: Opera House, Sydney; 2010. Hisaharu Motoda.

30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin); 2017. Hisaharu Motoda.

Hong Kong's public housing receives widespread photographic attention

2018-08-13T15:52:00-04:00

Across Hong Kong, where almost half the population lives in government-provided housing, public housing complexes have become wildly popular Instagram destinations. Locals and tourists have flocked to estates around the city, craning their necks to get that perfect social media shot and irritating residents in the process. The estates have drawn professional interest as well, featuring prominently in marketing campaigns and even a music video by the Korean boy band Seventeen.

Hong Kong's public housing, largely built in the 1960's and 70's, has attracted widespread public attention for its aesthetic appeal. These modernist style high-rises photograph beautifully with colorful displays of clean lined symmetry. While these buildings are visually engaging, they also play an important role providing affordable housing to millions in one of the most expensive cities to live. Hong Kong's immense public sector housing program creates space for nearly half of the city's residents.

A fake Harlem in Sweden and other architecture illusions documented by Gregor Sailer

2018-07-13T16:01:00-04:00

The caption to the photograph reveals that this isn’t New York at all, of course, but Sweden: a life-size replica of Harlem in a forest in the west of the country, near Gothenburg. The asphalt and snow are real enough, but nearly everything else is fake. The streets are void of people and cars; the store fronts are life-size photographs, printed on canvas and hung on steel frames. Welcome to the Potemkin village: a place of clones, impostors, facsimiles, frauds. Maybe don’t plan to stay.

Why is there a life-size replica of Harlem in Sweden? This bizarre space turns out to be a test track for self-driving cars. Why Harlem? Even Austrian artist Gregor Sailer who photographed the space doesn't know. Sailer traveled around the world to capture 25 of these false architectural landscapes for his project titled “The Potemkin Village”.

Check out some of these unreal images below:

“Carson City VI/Vargarda, Sweden, 2016” © Gregor Sailer

“Jeoffrécourt, French Army, France, 2015” © Gregor Sailer

“Holland Town VI, Gaoqiao New Town, China, 2016” © Gregor Sailer

“Complexe de Tir en Zone UrBaine II, French Army, France, 2015” © Gregor Sailer

“Schnöggersburg X, German Army Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, 2017” © Gregor Sailer

“Junction City IV, Fort Irwin, U.S. Army, Mojave Desert, California, U.S.A., 2016” © Gregor Sailer

Find out more on these imitation spaces captured by Sailer from Andrew Dickson.

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Naoya Hatakeyama: The Photographer and Architecture

2018-04-03T15:34:00-04:00

Taking a photograph of architecture by using a camera is tantamount to placing a small architecture against another large architecture and having the small one swallow the larger one.

The Japanese word for buildings, tatemono, means “things that are standing.” On the occasion of a major career retrospective at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Naoya Hatakeyama considers the meaning and the practice of photographing the built environment, and the distinction between the architecture of standing things and lying things that can be made to stand up.

Wide Lens: Scott Frances talks post-production and retouching

2014-03-17T13:24:00-04:00

For this month's Wide Lens, a column that investigates the relationship between architect and photographer, Photography & Architecture editor Julie Grahame shares some insight from her interview with architectural photographer, Scott Frances.

Julie Grahame:

Post Production and Retouching of Architectural Imagery

Master architectural photographer Scott Frances has been in the industry for more than 25 years. He assisted Ezra Stoller in the 1980s, and was introduced by him to Richard Meier in 1988. Meier recalls the meeting in his preface to Frances' book, "MonoVisioN," saying "From my first encounter with Scott I was able to sense a particularly sensitive response to experiencing architecture in his work, and we started a good relationship that extends from the Grotta Residence all the way to my most recent residential project in Brooklyn, New York."

Frances is also a partner in New York's high-end House Tribeca photo retouching house. Who better, then, to give us some thoughts on post-p...