PhD: Imagining Architecture Photographically

imagine (verb):

form a mental image or concept of

… from Latin imaginare ‘form an image of, represent’ and imaginari ‘picture to oneself’ …

(Oxford Dictionary of English)

Vorstellen:

… ein Bild von etwas machen.

Synonyme: … sich ausmalen; sich einbilden; sich ein Bild machen 

(Duden)

My PhD project tests a thesis: that photography does not just document or record architecture. Nor does it simply interpret it, as if ‘architecture’ were a fixed point of reference, whose meaning and significance are predetermined by its designer. Photography, in forming images of buildings – in picturing them – should be regarded as a critical practice that imagines architectural ideas and concepts through two creative encounters: firstly, that of the photographer with a building, and secondly that of the viewer with the photograph, as it enters into architectural discourse. The subject of architectural photography, I argue, is not buildings per se, but rather experiential encounters with built situations, and architectural ideas, which often manifest themselves more readily in images than in words.

The research is being conducted under the supervision of Prof. Hubert Locher at the Philipps-Universität Marburg.