1st Edition
Camera Constructs Photography, Architecture and the Modern City
Photography and architecture have a uniquely powerful resonance - architectural form provides the camera with the subject for some of its most compelling imagery, while photography profoundly influences how architecture is represented, imagined and produced. Camera Constructs is the first book to reflect critically on the varied interactions of the different practices by which photographers, artists, architects, theorists and historians engage with the relationship of the camera to architecture, the city and the evolution of Modernism. The title thus on the one hand opposes the medium of photography and the materiality of construction - but on the other can be read as saying that the camera invariably constructs what it depicts: the photograph is not a simple representation of an external reality, but constructs its own meanings and reconstructs its subjects. Twenty-three essays by a wide range of historians and theorists are grouped under the themes of ’Modernism and the Published Photograph’, ’Architecture and the City Re-imagined’, ’Interpretative Constructs’ and ’Photography in Design Practices.’ They are preceded by an Introduction that comprehensively outlines the subject and elaborates on the diverse historical and theoretical contexts of the authors’ approaches. Camera Constructs provides a rich and highly original analysis of the relationship of photography to built form from the early modern period to the present day.
Biography
Andrew Higgott, the University of East London, UK. Timothy Wray is an architect, photographer and writer based in Berlin.
'The interrelationship between photographic practices, architecture and the design process is of long standing, and the literature in this area continues to bring new and exciting modes of interpretation. Camera Constructs is a cleverly conceived volume which makes an alert contribution through a carefully articulated and keenly focused study which opens up further debates in this fertile terrain. Expertly edited by Higgott and Wray, Camera Constructs brings together the salient themes associated with visualizing the city through the means of photography and the lens of Modernism. This study will be of real value both as an undergraduate text and to scholars working in this fascinating interdisciplinary crossroads.' Alan Marcus, University of Aberdeen, UK
'An astonishing collection that puts new life into the whole question of architecture's relation to photography. Encyclopaedic in range and approach, these inspiring essays, many by young and emerging scholars, set off all sorts of thoughts about the multiple representations of space and time in these two media.' Adrian Forty, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UK
'Camera Constructs is a brim-full compendium packed with a rich variety of relational investigations into photography, architecture, and urban space.' CAA Reviews
'This volume offers an expansive range of conceptions of architectural practice - from the imagined spaces of the unconscious, to the pristine spaces of modern architecture, to the virtual fields of Google maps. The range testifies to the commanding influence that photography has had on architecture. Much more than a tool of reproduction, photography has allowed the field of architecture to redefine itself in compelling ways.' History of Photography
'But, as noted, the divisions between still and moving image are fading, and although Camera Constructs is a detailed and engaging anthology, with its gaze trained firmly on the history and role of the still image in architecture, it is a book that feels like a historical full-stop'. LSE Review of Books