Architecture photography by André Kertész

 

Homma Takashi vs Ono Daichi

Images from two different photographers of the same house (G House by Aoki Jun). One makes "art photography", the other does "architecture photography". Different genres, bounded by different sets of rules. Homma's take or 'angle' is personal, is his own. Ono's is generic: his role is to be invisible, to treat the idealised work of "architecture" -- the idea of it -- as sacrosanct, as possessing some kind of god-like identity. He might as well had been replaced by some other being behind the camera, he could be body-less eye-less nameless. Such is the state of architecture photography since Julius Shulman. 

Homma above, Ono below:

“Lyrical Landscape” architecture photography

A portrait is not a passport photo.
Photographs depicting architecture and interiors in design magazines can generally be called “functional” photography, like passport photos of spaces. They are usually straightforward super wide-angled shots that try to showcase spaces in their entirety, even if it means distorting narrow spaces beyond imagination. In the false belief that such photographs show things objectively, factually, photographers patently disfigure any plausible imagined experience of them. Such architecture photos have become a boring genre with iron shackles so systemically entrenched (photographers, commissioners, publishers) that few would dare decouple.
Another way of presenting architecture and interiors is to acknowledge that space is not about its dimensions, not about its constitutive elements, but about its ambiance or atmosphere. And any perception of it requires a breathing, living person with an internal subjective world. The photographs of it should attempt to present this atmosphere or joukei (情景) or literally, its lyrical landscape. Each photographer would have his/her unique way of depicting this; photography being not an act of objective recording.
For me, the photos above are some examples of trying to show architecture in this way.
#architecturephotography #lyricallandscape #KojiTaki #YukichiWatabe #KeiichiTahara #RikuIkeya #GoItami #showandtell #representation  #情景 #建築写真 #多木浩二 #渡部雄吉 #田原桂一 #伊丹豪 #池谷