WINNER OF A 2019 CANADIAN ARCHITECT PHOTO AWARD OF MERIT
James Brittain
Client: 5468796 Architecture
The winning photo by James Brittain
Photographing architecture on commission is a slightly chaotic mixture of accident and control. I think about the process in terms of rigour and fluidity. The tension between these two ideas is what makes for interesting pictures, allowing room for the unexpected to occur.
To make an interesting photograph on a commissioned shoot?or at least one that resonates in some way beyond simple description?a few different elements need to come together.
There?s usually a host of practical concerns: co-ordinating access, arranging equipment and lighting, familiarizing yourself with the routines of a place and the passage of light and the sun. However, many aspects are completely out of your control. For example, natural light, how it falls and moves, the weather, and the life of people occupying a place. I particularly cherish my work with 5468796 because of a shared commitment to challenge the boundaries of how architecture is represented in pictures. Each project is considered for its specificity, with nothing taken for granted.
62M, pictured here, is a disk-shaped housing complex set on an abandoned site next to a highway in Winnipeg. It has a beautiful combination of refinement and raw, and because of that we chose to shoot all the exterior photography in overcast skies or rain.
But clouds and sunshine suited the penthouse. It sits on top of the...