Architectural Photography - Cervin Robinson PDF
Architectural Photography - Cervin Robinson PDF
Architectural Photography - Cervin Robinson PDF
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to JAE.
http://www.jstor.org
-q I'
decades. This feeling, persistent but mild Typically the architectural photograph is
and largely unfocused,is directedspecifically taken in brilliant sunshine on a rare, deep-
at the way new buildings appear in the blue-skiedday. Interiors have been tidied as
magazines and books that are the principal they may rarely be in reality; furniture has
vehicle for architecturalphotography.There been carefully aligned. The picture is un-
is a discrepancybetween the image and the likely though perhaps more likely now than
reality. It's not a question of lack of skill on twenty years ago to show much of the
the part of photographers;on the contrary, neighborhoodof a building.There is a good IWO
it's more a questionof skill seemingly misap- possibility it may include no people.
I- ?
plied-though no one thinks there's any- ;
thing intentionally sinister afoot. If askedto explain why he photographs as he
does, the architecturalphotographer could
Three particular points of objection that justify most of it in the name of clarity.The
might be raised to the photographs are wide-angle lens he uses helps distinguish i
these: planes in his picture; it tends to play down :,"
distractingsurroundings;and,when his back
1) A point of view cannot be distinguished is-up against a wall, it allows him to show
as the photographer'sas distinct from the more. Furniture that is out of line will be
architect's. The photographer is always more distractinglyapparentin a picturethan
the architect'shandmaiden,to the point in reality;people who are asked to hold still
where magazinesdo not hesitate to share for a photograph are likely to appear dis- iF '\tb
~
""
-
Changesand a Prescription
If the architectural photograph in the pic-
turesque tradition seems to accrue value
with passing years, at least as compared to
the standard professional photograph, the
latter undergoes a curious transformation of
its own with time. When a building is new,
a set of photographs is taken. A number of
these pictures will be used in the official
publication of the building in architectural
magazines. Thereafter, these journals may,
when a writer has occasion to refer to the
building, use one of the pictures to tell the
reader which building he is talking about. A
single picture may appear in books to pin
down a reference to the building.Often the
single picture will repeatedly be the same
photograph. It will have become the iconic
view of that building. Originally, the whole
set of pictures could hardly have done
justice to the building.Eventuallyeveryone
knows the building, or feels he does, and the
mere appearance of the iconic view in the
smallest of sizes will serve its purpose of
reawakening the viewer's set of ideas about
the known building.
:'A
P• ,r
'!. .t;c.
Ir~?~ il ?I
de4T
??r_
- -
;,,; ' l
i'f. .
779 7
-
(facing page) From John Piper, 'The Nautical " I
Style" (top, left), photographs byJohn Piper
andJ M Richards, ArchitecturalReview 1938.
From Walker Evans, "The London Look"(top,
right), ArchitecturalForum,April 1958. 7.
Stephen Shore, "HunleyDrive, Los Angeles,
California,6/16/75" (which includes Pelli's
Design Center).