Photography for Architects: Effective Use of Images in Your Architectural Practice

***Shortlisted for the Architectural Book Awards 2024***

We live in a world driven by images, but with so much visual noise, is anyone really looking? How does an architect ensure their portfolio is within view of the right audience? Photographs are still as vital to architectural practice as they ever were. However, creation and circulation, once in the hands of skilled professionals, is now perceived as being ‘free’ and within easy reach of all. But where is the clarity? What is the message? By setting out the case for curated image making, considered photography may again be placed at the centre of architectural marketing strategies.

Photography for Architects guides the reader through various topics: from establishing a visual brand and sharing images online, to producing content in-house and commissioning professionals. It explores the still and moving image, creating books and exhibitions for legacy value, compiling award entries, and engaging with trade press. Little understood aspects regarding legal rights and obligations, ethics, copyright, and licensing images for use are discussed in clear language. Multiple photographic examples and conversations with international practitioners highlight the various themes throughout.

Written by a working architectural photographer whose life has been spent in commercial practice, this easy-to-read, richly illustrated guide is essential reading for architects and designers alike who are working with images and image makers.

Martine Hamilton Knight DLitt (Hon), FHEA is a professional architectural photographer with over three decades of industry experience. Her images are published worldwide in books, journals, and have been the subject of several exhibitions, most recently with her photographs for Sir Nikolaus Pevsner’s Buildings of England series of guidebooks.

Awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Nottingham in 2012 in recognition of her photographic work, the last ten years have seen Martine’s practice widen to encompass speaking and teaching. She has run professional development seminars for a number of organisations across the UK including the Royal Institute of British Architects and hosts regular workshops for The Royal Photographic Society. A senior lecturer on the BA and MA courses at Nottingham Trent University, Martine continues to shoot commercially and also offers a consultancy for practices seeking advice on photographic procurement and management.

www.builtvision.co.uk

The author says:

"With over thirty years in the field, the last ten years of professional experience have seen my conversations with clients prior to shooting projects become far more advisory than they were in the first two decades of my business.

The nature of image making has shifted from specialist photographers like myself working under commission, into one whereby through digital technologies, authorship may be seen as more democratic. Image capture is now brokered by architects themselves, practice staff and unidentified ‘others’ outside the skilled field of architectural photography. This leads to variances over methods of procurement and quality of production, together with ambiguity in legal and ethical obligations. I wish to establish clarity in these matters through this immersive, colourful, professional guide.

The subject of ‘when to shoot’ via commissioning a specialist, self-initiated authorship or the creation of dedicated staff positions is addressed, together with ‘the bottom line’ - where the economic value in photography and the moving-image lies within a business."