Photography and Architecture

In 1816, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce sensitized on a piece of paper an image of his bedroom window. This would be the first photograph of our history: the image of an architectural structure. Given the technical limitations of the time, monuments, structures and landscapes were chosen by photographers for their first records, as the necessary exposure time was still very long.

Sometimes architecture has been - and remains - protagonist in the production of many photographers, either by the documentary character, as an instrument of cultural construction, or from the artistic perspective. Photography enables indirect and even subjective reading about the transformations of space and cities; This is because photographs not only framed architecture, but also record their historical value, the architectural production of each season - capturing the story and style of a time.

The photographer's interpretation of an architectural work allows us to understand this architecture in our way and to emphasize its particularities. It is from the photographer's gaze that we can reflect and give new perspectives to compositions, lines, symmetries and shapes. This way of thinking and representing the space has come from the creation of Bauhaus, Germany, to the modernist avant -garde.

The relationship of photography and architecture is also marked in history by the relationship between professionals. Some illustrious examples of this relationship in the modern period are by architect Walter Gropius with photographer T. Lux Feininger, from Frank Lloyd Wright with Lucien Hervé with photographers Henry Fuermann and Pedro E. Guerrero, as well as Richard Neutra with Julius Shulman . It is interesting to note that, in this period of the twentieth century, architectural magazines were in full development, which increased the desire and the need to record the works produced by the architects.

This same relationship could be seen in Brazil between Oscar Niemeyer and French photographer Marcel Gautherot. In São Paulo, architecture professionals such as Rino Levi and Gregori Warchavchik already recognized the importance of image as mediator of the architectural object, contributing to its production and reproduction. Today, the function of the image during the project phase has gained even more strength with the use of 3D models and rendered, which are nonetheless computational simulations of photographs.

Currently, with the most frequent use of digital social networks, such as Instagram, and with the growing need for dissemination and registration of the architect's work, the representation of image architecture has gained even more relevance. Here at Hype, we already had the opportunity to work with photographers such as Marcelo Donadussi, Leonardo Finotti, Gabriel Carpes and Fellipe Lima. Of these, two are graduates in architecture, which further assists in understanding the projects and focusing points that most value their architecture

To honor and mark the day of photography, we are publishing photos of our projects in perspectives that had not yet been published. Photographs of details, which give a new look at our works, clicked by different photographers we admire. Check it on our Instagram ( @hypestudioarq) !

 

Text written by Lucas Pierozan.


Research references:

Daniela Andrade, " Look and Movement: Photography as a practice of architecture assimilation ".

Cult Magazine, " Peter Scheier: a modern photographer and the idea of city ".

Architecture Blog, " how architecture influences photography (and vice- versa) ".