Architectural Photography: The Latest Architecture and News

Is there an aspect, a recurring mark, that reveals a difference in the way that male and female architecture photographers see the world? This is, perhaps, one of those rhetorical questions often used as an argument to shed light on works produced by women and for which there is no precise answer.

Without claiming to offer an answer to this question—and in order to follow up on our first article that showcased a selection of women in architecture photography—we present here a new compilation of professionals who deserve attention for the quality of their photographic work. See our list below:

From Greek architect and photographer, Yiorgis Yerolymbos comes a book which captures the construction process of Renzo Piano’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece. Yerolymbos carefully documented every moment where the superfluous Olympic parking lot became a cultural center and sloping park with waterfront views. For almost a decade, and from every angle, the photographer watched the site transform. Birds-eye imagery proved to be some of the most captivating. As photographs, they manage to possess the characteristics of an architectural drawing.

Located in the largest remaining park in Beijing’s central business district, MAD Architects’ Chaoyang Park Plaza opened earlier this to year to much deserved fanfare. With a striking black glass form inspired by traditional Chinese ink landscape paintings, the complex is an immediate standout within its context.

In this photo series, Laurian Ghinitiou captures the series of buildings, drawing attention to their relationships to those surroundings. From the bustling streetscape, to the local residents fishing in the nearby pond, to KPF’s fast-rising CITIC Tower in the distance (soon to become Beijing’s tallest tower), Ghinitiou’s photographs are a reminder that all architecture is a product of the people and buildings around it – even the most dramatic of forms.

Check out the full photo set below:

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French photographer Laurent Kronental’s latest photo series, “Les Yeux des Tours” views of Paris, are framed by the quirky windows of the Tours Aillaud, and by the subtle differences in which the spaces around them are inhabited. Kronental considers the towers as some of the most spectacular of the Grands Ensembles built in the post-war economic boom in France. For him, photographing these buildings was a form of nostalgia, a way of satisfying a deep sense of childhood wonder and curiosity that fostered in him as a young boy perceiving them from the nearby business and shopping center "La Défense," questioning the lives of the people who live there.

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Terrence Zhang has been named the winner of the 2017 Arcaid Images Architectural Photographer of the Year Award for his "striking image" of the Swimming Pool at the New Campus of Tianjin University in China, designed Atelier Li Xinggang. Announced on the final day of the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Berlin, the image was lauded for its ability to capture the shafts of sunlight entering through the clerestory and interacting with the water.

The complications of war and violence demanded a bold piece of architecture to provoke the public's understanding of the impact it had on Germany. Daniel Libeskind chooses to engage with such events in his extension to Dresden's Military History Museum, by crashing a huge steel and concrete structure through the neoclassical facade, tearing apart the symmetry of the original building. Photographer Alexandra Timpau has captured the sharp edges and harsh angles of the museum's extension that convey the pain and the stark reality of war Libeskind and the museum refer to.

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In his new series, “Corner Symmetry,” Hungarian photographer and printmaker Zsolt Hlinka captures some of his home city of Budapest’s most stunning buildings, manipulating them to make them appear as if they are perfectly symmetrical when viewed from the corner.

Overlaid on a variety of pastel-colored skies, the photographs are taken from extreme 2-point perspective, making the buildings appear to pop straight off the page. The study is a continuation of his Wes-Anderson-reminiscent series, “Urban Symmetry.”

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Arcaid Images has revealed the shortlist of 20 images in the running for the title of World’s Best Building Image in their 2017 Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. The annual award selects photographs in four categories - Exterior, Interior, Sense of Place, and Building in Use - which are judged by an esteemed panel of designers, photographers and journalists based on their atmospheric quality, composition, use of scale and more.

“More than just informing people about the existence of such places, the best photos go beyond that and entice people to learn more about the buildings, cities, and landscapes – maybe even booking a flight to see them firsthand. That feeling hit me on numerous occasions,” said jury member John Hill, Editor of the World-Architects eMagazine.

After the first series of photographs revealing Madrid's architectural geometries, Joel Filipe shared his work with us again; this time the Into the Fog series. In these photographs, Filipe presents, through a layer of mist, well-known projects featuring the skyline of the Spanish capital.

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Abu Dhabi-based Brazilian designer and artist Fábio Araujo has a fascination with abandoned places – the mystery of where the man made clashes with the natural to create unique colors, textures and compositions.

These places are the subject of his series, aptly titled “Abandoned Places,” in which he uses a series of digital manipulations to create small islands floating within and contrasting with their clean, solid backgrounds.

Other works by Araujo include “Favela,” where the Brazilian housing typology has been reimagined as located within the sky, and miniature models of scenes and buildings including the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai.

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The door: despite being one of the most fundamental architectural elements, the immense significance these portals hold in architecture and culture can hardly be questioned. Historically, empires erected gigantic gateways to welcome visitors and religious shrines installed doors with ornate embellishments to ward off evil just as contemporary governments have built arches to commemorate important events.

In this photo-series, however, architect Priyanshi Singhal directs her focus to doors in a humbler vein—those of homes and hole-in-the-wall shops. Armed with her camera, she travels through narrow winding streets in age-old Indian towns and villages—characterized by their mixed land-use—as she studies and documents the inherent relationship between architectural tradition, culture, and a people. A door and its chaukhat (threshold) hold deep spiritual meaning in India’s traditional vastu shastra system of architecture. Furthermore, Singhal’s work provides us a brief glimpse of the imprint that the vagaries of time, community and economy have left on India’s historical urban fabric.

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