The relationship between photography and architecture has been the subject of numerous studies, which have shown that this medium has undeniably transformed the ways in which architecture is conceived, understood and represented. The aim of a forthcoming issue of Profils is to question and highlight the various facets of the interaction between architects and photographers as co-producers of the visual representation of architecture, by looking at the uses, views and practices that have marked this relationship over time. We are interested in the collaborations between architects and photographers, both through partnerships and as individual initiatives, as in the work that has been carried out on the relationship between Le Corbusier and Lucien Hervé, the architects Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig with the photographer Julius Shulman, the collaborations between Luis Barragán and Armando Salas, Zaha Hadid and Hélène Binet or, more recently, the photographer Philippe Ruault and the OMA agency.
Examining the interaction between architects and photographers raises questions about the nature of these photographs: document, artwork or communication tool? If photography is used to demonstrate the reality of a project, it can also be used to stage architecture, with an aesthetic interpretation that goes beyond the purely documentary function. The images of an architect photographing his own buildings reveal information about his personal vision, his creative process and his relationship with his work. For the working architect, photography is seen as an instrument of study, experimentation and inspiration. It interacts with the creative process, and enables them to reflect on the spatiality, materiality and visual impact of buildings. When it's a photographer who produces these images, the photograph doesn't always show what the architect wants to show. The relationship between architect and photographer can therefore be conflictual. In this respect, the context of commissions anand collaborations with heritage institutions that impose certain protocols might be explored.
Whereas architecture used to be exhibited through drawings, plans and elevations, photography has become an essential tool and a leading iconographic source since the second half of the 19th century, and this increasingly so, right up until the beginning of the 21st century. Indeed, the increasing accessibility of the medium from the 1920s onwards marked a decisive turning point in the way architecture was documented, disseminated and promoted in specialized and non-specialized publications, magazines and newspapers.
What’s more, the visual narrative imagined by the photographer provides architects with ways of documenting, analyzing and communicating their projects. By presenting works from a variety of angles, it offers a tool for exploring architectural choices, materials and construction details, and enriches understanding of the discipline and its practices (architecture, but also landscape, product design, etc.). Photomontage, first introduced in the 19th century, and more particularly with the development of digital technologies and the advent of retouching software, has opened up new avenues, as has the use of drones to further renew photography of the built environment. The photographer is constantly proposing new forms of representation and offering new perspectives, which architects are making their own.
Proposed topics:
We look forward to receiving proposals for articles that fall into one of the following categories.
I. Photography as a tool for knowledge, reflection and inspiration
-The architect's photo library: document or art work?
-The intention of the architect-photographer
-The influences of photography on the architect's practice : innovations and experiments
II. The photographer’s eye: documenting and publicizing an architect’s work
-Which photographs favor the transmission of practice, for example, but not limited to, pedagogical contexts?
-Architect and photographer, collaborating to enhance and disseminate an architectural work
-How the work on architecture or with architects transforms or shapes the photographer’s gaze.
Proposals for Contributions:
Proposals for contributions should be sent to revueprofilsgmail.com before 30 March 2025. Abstracts are welcome in French and English, although articles will need to be submitted in French.
Abstracts should include:
- Provisional Title
- A summary of no more that 2000 characters
- Indicative list of sources
- Bio-bibliographical presentation of the author(s)
Calendar:
- Call Launch : late January 2025
- Abstract Deadline : before 30 March 2025
- Article Deadline : 1st September 2025
The Journal:
Profils is aimed at all those – architects, teachers, heritage or restoration specialists, archaeologists, art lovers - who, in their respective institutional, professional or personal contexts, are involved in the production or use of architectural history.
Supported by the AHA, this journal is driven by a spirit of openness: firstly, disciplinary and generational, favoring monographic approaches that bring together the widest possible range of viewpoints; secondly, thematic, chronological and methodological, avoiding overly familiar models or frameworks; and thirdly, geographical and spatial, proposing approaches that make ample room for displacement and interactions between social or political realities, or territorial scales.
Each issue of Profils contains a thematic dossier comprising a series of essays, as well as texts divided into sections highlighting current research in architectural history.
For Information about the review, please visit : http://www.histoire-architecture.org/revue-profils
Academic Advisory Board:
Jérémie Cerman - Jean-Sébastien Cluzel - Sabine Frommel - Riccardo Giordano - Jean-Marie Guillouët - Christian Hottin - Hélène Jannière - Catherine Maumi - Tricia Meehan - Antoine Picon - Nicolas Pierrot - Hélène Rousteau Chambon - Chiara Santini - Nathalie Simonnot - Simon Texier.
Editor-in-Chief: Jean-Philippe Garric, AHA President
Managing Editors: Camille Bidaud, Camille Napolitano
Guest Editors: Cléa Calderoni, Camille Lesouef
Reference:
CFP: Revue Profils: The Architect and the Photographer. In: ArtHist.net, Feb 3, 2025 (accessed Feb 14, 2025), <https://arthist.net/archive/43858>.