Abstraction in Architectural Photography: some thoughts.

"Between documentation and interpretation? How much of each is necessary or desired?"

The answer for me, when the client is an architect, both. I am paid for both my eye and technical expertise. All photography requires interpretation just from the basic activity of framing an image, making a visual selection, but for some images it goes far beyond the process of selection. Over the course of an entire shoot, I must deliver images that both accurately depict the volumes, masses, setting, facades etc. and I must deliver images that interpret the feel of the design. It is in attempting to interpret the feel of the design where I am most aesthetically free. Here are a few examples that I did recently for a project. I'm never sure that the client will appreciate some of my more abstract interpretations, but usually my more creative clients appreciate my more creative images. Project, the Aperture Center, Mesa del Sol, New Mexico, Antoine Predock Architect.

Some of my favorite images of architecture are extreme abstractions that don't illustrate the physicality of a structure but speak to how design feels. Oftentimes these images fall on deaf ears (blind eyes?) and move no one but myself. But my more creative clients appreciate them. Here are examples from the Aperture Center shoot (above) designed by Antoine Predock FAIA with Jon Anderson Architects. Below are images I "encountered" while waiting for the light to get better!