Playful corporate architecture in color
If there is something I love of shooting architecture photographs is knowing that I am helping to communicate the projects of people who have invested a lot of time and effort in making them real.
The professional communication of architecture in photographs is a very serious matter because it synthesizes in images a very long process of collaboration of many people who, each one with their own concerns and ways of understanding the project, contribute to it with some of their knowledge in creating something that actually transforms landscape –urban, domestic, office or retail, subject and dimension doesn’t matter– as well as a small part of the life of those who relate to these new spaces.
All the content that the photographs express speaks of all the people who, to a greater or lesser extent, have made this architectural project possible and must always do so with the rigor and respect that all of them deserve. Lacking that rigor and creating poorly elaborated photographs would nothing but mean defrauding all the expectations of those who have trusted you as an author and as a professional to communicate their achievements.
The fact that all communication is based on the exchange of views and ideas makes the photographer's position even more compromised when he is completely aware of his huge responsibility as long as all the photographs that portray every new and unique architecture project are nowadays perpetually visible online anywhere in the world.
Still, much of the role of architecture communication in photographs means firstly and very carefully representing an impression of space, a fleeting and joyful first glance that captures the viewer to want to know more about what he is seeing.
Of course, creating that first impression –as a bait or some kind of wake-up call– that ignites the spark of communication is part of the photographer's competences and is determined by his abilities, by how he prepares small and apparently innocent traps to direct the viewer’s look.
But none of that is possible if those who have designed the space do not endow the photographer with expressive or graphic resources to display the visual decoys that in the end are the ones that interpellate the viewer to stop and contemplate and, in this, it is decisive that both the authors of the project as the photographer share a certain level of play that is nothing more than an expression of respect for the viewer.
All the solidity of communication requires a firm chain of trust and respect as strong as Blockchain but with the subtle difference of proposing a game that the viewer solves: the question is to involve all those taking part in that chain to join the game, from the beginning to the end, for everyone to enjoy the experience.
I guess that's why I feel so comfortable working for a firm like Savills in Barcelona who understands the need for rigorous communication right from the start of design and is able to dare to use color so decidedly in corporate architecture projects for global companies with a very powerful brand image, because then much of the game of intriguing the observer is generated with great ease.
My function as a photographer is to elaborate a visual harmony in the images that I create so that they transmit the same comfort in the treatment and trust that the authors of the project grant me to share it in my photographs as a sign of respect both towards them and the viewers who will discover this new architecture for the first time.
If the chain of trust and respect for visual communication is simple and friendly as in an attractive game of looks, then it is very solid and effective: professional communication is an effort and an investment in which all those involved must give the best of themselves to get the best results.
Photography, like any other visual art, may seem apparently simple and so it must be presented if it wants to be actually persuasive but it needs to create a fertile soil of free expression and thinking to bloom.