Fotograf Magazine

There is a peculiar, close friendship between photography and architecture. It seems as though alongside the capturing of the human face, photography was born for the recording of architecture. Ever since the emergence of the medium, we find the most numerous genres to be portraiture and the sense of place. Our present time is also characterized by an unprecedented number of photographic publications concerning architecture and design. “High” architecture is more than anything mediated as well as evaluated most of all through the medium of photographs. From our own analysis, we are familiar with only a few buildings. The question therefore presents itself as to what extent architects may or may not be designing their buildings for the camera. Photography’s illusory nature is well known, as is its ability to create impressions that serve as radically different from reality, to change scale and perspective and the relationship between building and surrounding space. Surely the sense of being taken aback or even disenchanted when confronted with a famous building is familiar to many of us.