Constructing Worlds – Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age Exhibition View
I was really looking forward to visiting the Barbican as I have researched three of the artists (for an Orientation project on documentary photography) whose works were on display at this show – Walker Evans, Thomas Struth and Bernd/Hilla Becher. My anticipation was building to see their actual prints up close-up and personal as I made my way from my morning visit to The Photographers’ Gallery.
‘Constructing Worlds’ consists of 250 images by 18 photographers that collectively have recorded the global changing architecture through the 20th and 21st Century. This exhibition highlights, through the architectural environment, the fabric of societies and the way communities have expressed their history and identity. Architecture via the use of photography is shown as evidence of life. Most of the images are documentary showing a mix of poverty, wealth, war, consumerism and modernization several include people where others are absent. Some images are pure abstraction showing that geometric patterns have existed in architecture throughout the ages. The exhibition is split into zones for each of the photographers and in date order – from Berenice Abbott’s 1932 iconic black and white images of skyscrapers taken from the top of the Empire State building to the coloured night sky image of the favelas in Venezula by Iwan Baan in 1932.
Walker Evans has been the subject of my latest artist research. He is best known for his documentary photography of the Great Depression and his candid work of the passengers of the Subway and American streets. So I was wondering what images I would see re carchitecture. They were varied. Evans experimented and devised a never been seen before way to the photographic approach of architecture’s relationship with people. He focused on the design and composition of buildings in American towns – towns that were esuffering or coming out of the Great Depression. It also showed that he had great fascination with signs/advertising boards something I truly missed during my research.
Atlanta, Georgia, Frame Houses and a Billboard, 1936 – Walker Evans
The image above looks to be quite a straightforward image documenting the housing styles in Atlanta, Georgia but on closer inspection it tells us so much more. By including two identical houses with elegant verandas entirely made out of wood and the huge advertising billboards you get a sense of an up and coming society, consumerism and the vernacular i.e. the town’s architecture concerned with domestic and functional living rather than the grand, spectacular public buildings.
Caracas city view: favelas merging towards the city centre, with Torre David on the horizon, 2011 – Iwan Baan
A high point for me at this exhibition are the more recent coloured images printed in jumbo-size, such as Iwan Baan’s ‘Caracas City View’ (see above). These massively printed images are used to represent the size and scale of the buildings and the surrounding areas – just awe inspiring. You find yourself stopping and staring at each image as there is so much to take in – a quick gaze just won’t do. Being pin-sharp with so much detail you get a sense of progress and modernization and how the communities are being impacted, positively or negatively, by the rapid rate of changes these countries and cities are currently undergoing.
I thoroughly recommend a visit to this exhibition – you definitely get to experience the many varied and different approaches to architecture photography.
- BERNSTEIN, F.A., 2010. Structural integrity and people, too. (architectural photography of Iwan Baan)(Arts and Leisure Desk). The New York Times. 24 January, p.22
- KING, J., 2013. Iwan Baan: Perry Rubenstein Gallery. Artforum International Magazine [online], 51(9), p.37 [viewed 13 November 2014]. Available from: Academic Onefile (GALE)
- PARDO, A., E. REDSTON and D. CAMPANY, 2014. Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age. London: Prestel
Visual Exploration 