01.06.10
The Importance of the Photograph - by Andy Marshall
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Since I was a young boy I have always been interested in the built-environment, and in particular with our heritage. That initial enthusiasm translated into a Combined Honours degree in Literature and History and a Post Graduate diploma in Historic Building Conservation. For the latter, I was fortunate enough to win the Harold Samuel Prize for my thesis which focused on the Genius Loci of architecture - that is, the tangible and intangible qualities that go to make up our architectural landscape.
"...the tangible and intangile qualities that go to make up our architectural landscape". This is the unswerving philosophy which informs my photography.
I have always believed that there is something more than just the 'bare bones' of a building - the mere fact of its physical presence.
When a building is built, lived in and worked in, something sparks up into existence which is more than the sum of its parts. This is particularly so with historic buildings, which grow organically over time in the obvious physical context, but also in the context of record and memory.
Even the most mundane photograph can be evocative in terms of the memory it captures. Etched into the back of a wooden church door are the words "I LOVE LILY MY WIFE", right.The architectural photographer plays a small but important part in the process of informing such memories by capturing buildings and conveying meaning through the choice of subject matter.
Photography can act, at its most basic, as a record. Providing important information about make up of plan, space, circulation, processes and use. This is important when changes are being made, say, to a listed property. A photograph may be the last record of the physical remains of the past. In this way it becomes charged with meaning.
This Art Deco building was demolished soon after this photo was taken, left.
At it's most powerful, it can capture the intangible nature of a building - the quality of light, the spatial significance, the atmosphere of an age or period. It tell's stories of the way we lived, what worried us, what made us happy and how we toiled for a living.
" A building can tell stories about the way we lived", Georgian Church interior, right.
When behind the lens, I am always aware of the historicity of the present - those things which look uninteresting to our generation but might be fascinating 100 years from now.
How many times have you looked at a Victorian photograph and your eye has wandered from the people in focus to the detritus of everyday life held in suspended animation on the mantelpieces and console tables of a different era?
" I am always aware of the historicity of the present"
This is one good reason to capture contemporary architecture landscape and interiors. We may not know it - but we are a part of a continuing British tradition which records our everyday life through our stylistic and architectural achievements.
More than being just vain, we are fulfilling the enduring need to connect with our identity and tradition by reflecting the past by recording the present and informing the future. "Reflect the past by recording the present and informing the future.."
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