Welcome to a new section of my blog! First, let’s get rid of the classical introduction for this new amazing subject. What I suggest is using your imagination for a few minutes… Look around, open any book or magazine you have next to you, or simply imagine a spellbinding sunset which is worth sharing with your friends. What would be the essential part in all these situations? You might have guess. But let’s take a step further. Would you like a newspaper, or a magazine, to have only endless lines, words, letters, everything in black and white? Definitely, this wouldn’t be my cup of tea… The press nowadays is based not only on written word, but, I would say in plenty of cases, on images and videos. And these involve photography. The most accessible art of our times.
Being more accessible does not mean that it is less fascinating than other arts. This fact implies that it have become so commonly encountered, that our society have become photo-addicted. Photography is everywhere: just cast an eye over the room you are in: the cover of the books, the calendar, your desktop image. Would your Facebook profile be attractive if you didn’t posted any photos? We are acquainted with photography since our first days of life. A family album depicts your appeance as a baby…
Of course, even before the photography being invented ( in 1837, by the French Louis Daguerre), people didn’t lack forms of visual expression – but, instead of pressing on a button, they had to spend long hours or days in order to reproduce the reality using the visual arts. Photography eased up humanity’s efforts for immortalising special moments or figures. Nowadays, we all use a photo camera almost every day. Indeed, photography is one of the brilliant inventions of all times.
Photography, like all other arts, is defined by a set of rules. Apart from having specific knowledge in the field, a good photographer should use a quality photo camera, and, of course, a splendid view or model to take photos of. You can find all the necessary technical details (and not only), here.
But, in which way is photography related to architecture? Actually, there are countless uses of photos in our field of study. From the very first time when we get in touch with architecture, we see photos of specific buildings and monuments. This is what we call Architectural photography. We find it in any architecture book. For improving our knowlegde regarding the history of architecture, different architectural styles, or architectural masterpieces all around the world, the architectural photography is priceless. It can also become a hobby – and, from my experience, being a good photographer is a very rewarding skill.
We shall move on to this specific kind of photography in the next article. Until then, be sure your camera battery is fully charged… you might be longing for using it after the upcoming post!!
