The London Festival of Architecture hosted its first photographic exhibition called “The Architect’s Eye”, featuring winners and finalists from the Architect’s Eye Photography Competition that we previously mentioned here on ArchDaily. On the exhibition’s opening night, nearly one-hundred people attended a panel discussion that focused on the relationship between architecture and photography within Zaha Hadid’s ROCA London Gallery. The panel, chaired by Amanda Baillieu from Building Magazine, was formed by Moderator Alex Health, Jack Pringle of Pringle Brandon Architects, Simon Allford of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects, Architectural Photographer Nick Guttridge and Architectural Photographer Grant Smith. Roca London Gallery has provided us with the clip above. Check it out and follow us after the break key points from the discussion.
The panel discusses elements of architecture in the context of photography with key points such as:
- What is the present relationship between the education of an architect and photography and the training of an architect? What is the role of imagery in the formulation of an idea and how is it used in the design?
- What is the role of photography as a representation or catalogue of a completed work?
- The understated tension between the photographer and the architect.
Jack Pringle notes that photography is still a fundamental part of an architect’s training. Photographs are used to document but also to give a different perspective – to focus on some details and while tuning everything else out or, on the contrary, bringing the composition into context.
Simon Allford states bluntly, if the photograph is not good then maybe it is not a very good building. “We finish when the life of the building begins … We don’t want to control it beyond the grave”. The image that is distributed to the public is the building.
Many of the panelists agreed that the photograph defines the architecture. Whether it is controlled by the architect or an editorial staff, it is the image that becomes more accessible than the building as a first impression.
