“Professional Architecture Photographers create a false image of the
buildings they photograph.”
Is this accurate?
Professional quality architectural photographs are very different
from how we view and experience buildings in reality. Is this reality or an
illusion? The factors needed to create an image such as lighting, time,
composition and subject will all be taken into account. Photographers will be
used to illustrate examples.
What is reality in photography? When viewing an image before
having any judgements you have to take in account the perception of things. The
positioning of the camera is vital in architectural photography as it is the
only thing you can’t change in post-production. The angle in which you take the
photograph has a meaning and could send the viewer false signals in regards to
what to believe. Architectural photography is all about location as it is the
subject of the image. When focusing on a specific form of architecture,
location can be useful or useless as it can be influential to the image in a
good way or a bad way. For example, if you wanted to capture a photograph of a
nice building, but its location is in a bad area and it is obvious, then the
photographer is selling the image to be negative by showing the bad area. Julius
Shulman, a much respected architectural American photographer uses compositions
and camera angles in a very sharp and positive way in making his photographs
look quite slick and nearly wealthy as his locations he chooses in Los Angeles
are always positioned in a way to make it look as if he shot in a rich place.
But what photographers can do is choosing key
camera positions and angles to not include the bad surroundings and just focus
on the building itself which creates the false illusion that this building can
be anywhere, good or bad. This is significant as when people view the images of
architecture, they aren’t given all the real info and footage as vital parts
can be cropped or cut out, giving the illusion that the real subject of the
photograph is how you see it in the image and not real life. The only truth we
can believe is with our own eyes but professional architectural photographers
know how to make an image look realistically positive for the viewer in manipulating
their mind by letting them think that because it’s a professional photograph,
then it must be the truth.
The time a photograph is taken and the lighting used can
have an enormous impact on the image’s meaning to the viewer and can give an
impression that isn’t true to the viewer. Professional photographers know that
different times of the day give out different natural lighting and can set a
certain mood and atmosphere within the image. For example if a photographer
wanted to shoot an image of a skyline and their intention was to show how modern
the city is, they would do the shoot at night so the sky is dark but everything
is illuminated by the available transmitted light which relates to technology
and gives the impression of modernity to the viewer. But taking images at
different times and having different atmospheres doesn’t give a true
representation of the architectural focus as it can change from dusk till dawn,
but the viewer will think the place of the archictural focus stays the same all
day. John Maclean another very respected American photographer shoots at very
dull and cloudy times of the day to give a plain and boring sense to the
viewer. For example his shoots in Los Angeles are all in black and white which
enhances the dullness of the white sky and heavy grey clouds which surprises
the viewer as they don’t expect that from such a sunny place like Los Angeles.
This works well as the time and weather of the photographs have a huge impact
on the viewer’s thoughts of the images.
Shooting at different times of the day can be very persuasive
as the photographer can sell the idea that the place of their chosen
architecture subject has that permanent atmosphere and mood by the way they
used their available lighting due to the time they done the shoot which is
again not the truth and is in fact an illusion created by the photographer
wanting the viewer to believe the reality of the photographer and not the
truth.
