The Architect’s Eye competition judge: “Our profession and our lives are inextricably linked with the photographic”

Day one, week one, year one at architecture school I was told to go out and buy an SLR camera and learn how to use it. From that day on I have been fascinated by photography. And so it is with all architects, our profession and our lives are inextricably linked with the photographic.

Of course we rely on the best professional photographers to capture our work in evocative images that we use in publications and to pitch for more jobs. Architects are very careful about who they allow to photograph their buildings because the image becomes all important.

For many buildings the picture is better known than the real piece. The photographic study literally represents the building in our mind and we construct a reality of the object in our imagination. We’re the surprised when we get to see how different the real thing is. Frank Lloyd Wright’s work is small, the floor in Ronchamp slopes, etc

But architects are photographers too. Many of us carry a camera 24 / 7 – made even easier by good quality camera phones. Many architects slide, and now Jpeg, collections are legendary resources for public and private lectures and presentations. We are inveterate users of cameras, for buildings, for details, to capture beauty, to capture memories. And many architects are very good photographers indeed.

It’s no coincidence that architects and photography go hand in hand. Of course photographs are useful in a utilitarian way for architects, but there are deeper roots to the relationship.  Architects, just like photographers have to have an ”eye”. Peter Cook talks about this all the time. If you have an “eye” your work, be it a building or a photograph, looks right. Architects, just like photographers work on a medium which is both artistic and technical, that’s quite rare. Architects, like photographers mediate the three dimensional world into two dimensions – architects from 2D to 3D, photographers from 3D to 2D.

So, what could be more interesting than to see architect’s own photographs of architecture? I’ve enjoyed the Architect’s Eye competition for three years now; I hope you enjoy it this year too.

Postscript

To find out more about how to enter the Architect’s Eye photography competition visit architectseye.co.uk or visit the facebook page. You can also keep up to date with the competition on twitter by following @architects_eye

Jack Pringle is chair of the judging panel which also includes Keith priest of Fletcher Priest, Irena Murray, Amanda Baillieu and photographer Grant Smith.

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