Photography for Landscape Architecture
“Landscape Architects tend not to spend money on photography, but their ability to communicate their work suffers as a result.”
These are the words of the current Journal of the Landscape Institute which makes a refreshing call for more Landscape Architects to engage with professional photography in order to better represent their work and thus help elevate understanding of the importance of strong landscape design.
It is a troubling issue. With budget’s for Landscape fighting a constant rearguard action when savings have to be found, it is no surprise that professional photography begins to feel like something of a luxury. Yet the risk is that this becomes a part of a self-fulfilling cycle. Andrew Grant of Grant Associates is quoted ‘ We were told that we needed to get into the habit of commissioning proper professional photos . . .when you are faced with the bills you think, can we afford it, but you get to the point where is has to be affordable’.
Ruth Slavid’s article brings some real insight to the matter. If you don’t have much money and you want to share the architect of the client’s photography you have to hope that this is a project on which the architect appreciates the importance of landscape’. One difficulty is that the architectural photography is often commissioned close to when the building is completed. A time when you can be pretty sure that the landscape is unlikely to look its best.
As an architectural photographer whose way into architecture was through an appreciation of landscape, (so much I married into the profession), seeking to represent the part played by landscape is second nature. I’d even go so far as to suggest that I give it equal weight with the building . In my mind the two are inseparable.
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