IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 25

Mark Sexton, FAIA, a founding principal of Chicago-based
firm Krueck + Sexton, sums up the importance of professional
architectural photography this way: "Anybody can take a
picture with an iPhone, but that doesn't make it good or
worthwhile. There is an art to architectural photography.
It's not simply a recording. If that were true, there would be no
need for professional photographers. They're able to capture
the essence of the building in a way that the casual iPhone
user will never be able to approach. It's like cooking, you know?
There are people who can grill fish, and then there are master
chefs who can take that fish and do incredible things with it."

INTERIOR OF STEEL AND GL ASS HOUSE PHOTO BY NICK MERRICK © HEDRICH BLESSING

Julian Fentress, director of public affairs at Fentress Architects'
Denver office, agrees. "It's hugely important," he says of
professional photography. "We use it in all sorts of marketing
materials across the board, because it showcases our projects
in the best way possible. It's true that we'll use a nonprofessional to photograph something that's under
construction, or someone getting an award at a ceremony,
and sometimes we'll have those things taken on a camera
phone because that's good enough quality on social media
or for internal communication between teams. But when it
comes to showing our finished projects, what a professional
photographer can produce-all those millions of pixels,
looking at the design from different perspectives, studying
the job, getting the light perfect-is something else entirely."

Sexton's words would be music to the ears of many
architectural photography professionals, who see their role
as expanding upon, even transcending, traditional concepts
of documentation. "My approach is not documentary," says
Merrick, who specializes in interiors. "I'm not a photographer
who walks in, sets up the camera in a corner of the room
and bangs away, doing sixty shots and hoping my clients find
ten that they like. My approach is much more considered.
I eliminate forty-five of those possible sixty by just looking
at the room, seeing what's really important, and figuring out
how to put the various elements together in the picture.
Working with the client, we then eliminate another five
shots-leaving us with ten, maybe eight, maybe six.
That other photographer is not about producing an image
that expresses the design of the room; they're about showing
the actual building. I'm much more interested in interpreting
the design, analyzing the design concepts that were utilized,
and letting those concepts influence the design of
the photographs."
In Merrick's way of thinking, a great photograph of an
architectural interior has three components, the first of
which is the subject matter itself. The second component is
the picture's formal and graphic qualities-the framing,
interplay of light and shadow, the shapes, and so on.
The third component is the intangible, emotive content of
the design, which is completed only in the eye of the viewer.

PERSPECTIVE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015