Framing spaces

Almost every architect also doubles as a photographer or at least an enthusiast.

- Shriti Das

This affinity towards photography is perhaps embedded way back in childhood. But beyond photography the impulse to doodle, scribble and draw is an even more primal and an intrinsic way of expression within kids. And then photographs and other media build upon this primal taking. And then with studying architecture, both entities; of creation and visual documentation overlap. Be it archiving our work or documenting study-trips; in the current day and age, the camera is accessible and inevitably has become an integral part of life within and outside architecture school.

What happens when the enthusiast/hobby turns to a full-fledged vocation? It is hardly ever acknowledged or mentioned that few understand the ‘connect’ that most architects have with their work. Even though the project might belong to another entity and no matter how much one tries to be objective and dissociated with their buildings for pragmatic reasons of business and commerce; there always a exists a tinge of intimacy towards the built-form that was once a doodle on the drawing board. And this familiarity may be alien to the outlier who is also a part of architecture; be it a visualizer, the engineer or the photographer. This is not to say that the outlier does his job better or worse; but in fact they maybe bring in a new and different way of seeing which can be beneficial to the scheme of things. And while the non-architect might have his take on the vocation, the architect who photographs architecture brings to the fore interesting arguments and perspectives of reading architecture, understanding processes and the debates over commerce versus art, ethics of building and photographing and the narratives that emerge.