Building with light: the international history of architectural photography/ Robert Elwall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elwall, Robert.

Contributor:

Royal Institute of British Architects.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architectural photography.

Physical Description:

240 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm

Other Title:

International history of architectural photography

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Merrell, 2004.

Summary:

Ever since its invention, photography has enjoyed a close and mutually stimulating relationship with architecture - an association underlined by one description of photography as "building with light". So well established is this link that photography is now regarded as the easiest and most reliable means of making architecture and its ideas accessible to a wider public. Our first, sometimes our only, impression of a building often comes from a photograph, and the skilled photographer can help us to see even the most familiar structures with a fresh eye.

This book offers a lively exploration of the development of architectural photography and some of its key themes. From the earliest examples of the genre in the nineteenth century to today's digital revolution, Robert Elwall skilfully focuses on the changing aesthetic of the medium worldwide. Included are such topics as the early influence of architectural drawing; the growth of specialist photographic firms documenting the nineteenth-century building boom; the influence of photography on both architectural practice and history; the invention of half-tone reproduction; the role of photography in the spread of Modernism; the impact of colour photography during the 1970s and 1980s; and the increasing use of computers to shape a new direction. Authoritatively written by a world-renowned expert and illustrated with arresting images from collections throughout the world, this study is essential reading for anyone interested in architecture, photography and the history of their special relationship.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Triumph of the Apparatus 1839-1860 11

Chapter 2 Volumes of Hints, Suggestions and Realities 1860-1895 49

Chapter 3 Printer's Ink and Pictorialism 1880-1925 85

Chapter 4 The New Vision 1925-1945 119

Chapter 5 Photography Ascendant 1945-1975 155

Chapter 6 Colour and Computers 1975-Present 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-234) and index.

Published in association with The Royal Institute of British Architects, London.

ISBN:

1858942152

OCLC:

55077095