THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN DESIGN
I know. I know. Here we go with the photography. But this is film photography and I can't tell you how much time and how many layers of skin I've spent mixing chemistry in the kitchen sink and hanging film to dry in the shower. I decided to include some sample images of film photography I’ve done over the years because I have found it to be a very effective design tool. In some ways, the pictures I’ve taken are more a reflection of my design sensibilities than actual landscape projects because I don’t feel limited by any project constraints and can express freely. Not only do I use it as a means of getting familiar with my environment, practicing allows me to access a more focused mindset, not dissimilar to that which one might get from meditation. In short, with film photography, I train myself to see. It forces me to heighten my levels of observation. And with only twelve frames in a medium format roll, one has to be discerning about each shot. Film photography also allows for the accidental and the revealing of extraordinary aspects of the mundane, especially when creating composite images from multiple exposures and cross-processing slide film. My continuing goal is to bring this mindset and approach to the office when performing duties as a landscape architect. Our experience of landscape tends to be a more cinematic experience since, more often than not, we’re moving through it. A photograph, however, has the stillness that allows one to isolate, scrutinize, and ponder photography concepts going on in the image, most all of which are readily applicable to architecture and landscape architecture: one’s own design hand, framing view, edge quality, depth of field, the urban condition, balance between figure and ground, light and shadow, compression and release, hide and reveal, perspective. I hope these remarks are clear in the pictures.