Photographers are researchers and critics of architects. They look into the proportions, context and aura of buildings. Their professional niche is quite narrow, but within its framework, works of art, research, as well as attractive images are created for the promotion and presentation of modern architectural firms.
We tried to collect several Russian architectural photographers in one material, based on Instagram accounts, but not only. There are, of course, a lot of photographers: recently there were more than a hundred recommendations on the question “advise an architectural photographer” in social networks. We chose fourteen. The material contains both experienced photographers who have exhibitions, prizes and publications in well-known magazines behind them, and beginners, some came to the profession by accident, others continued the family tradition, and others “shot” thanks to the latest technologies - drone photography, for example.
The selection can be used as an introduction to architectural photography - the heroes of the material share their experience and give advice, you can also use it to get an idea of Russian architecture - not only modern, but also Soviet, wooden, outgoing.
Yuri Palmin
Yuri Palmin needs no introduction - his name first appears in the mind's eye when mentioning architectural photography, which he has been doing since 1989. Yuri's father, Igor Palmin, is a major Russian photographer, known, among other things, for a series of photographs of Art Nouveau architecture. Yuri collaborates with magazines like Domus and World Architecture, teaches at MARSH, participates in art projects, his photographs are adorned with books on the history of architecture. Yuri does not have an Instagram account, but many of his works can be viewed on the Flickr page, and here you can read a short excursion into architectural photography.
I really don't run Instagram, stopped all public activity on Facebook a few years ago and only occasionally and lazily update my Flickr. There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, I am returning more and more to the traditional attitude to photography as a physical object, reproduced either in large print runs, or by some method of piece printing. In all these cases, the photograph has a material medium and physical size. In addition, the life cycle of such images is naturally associated with life as such, including aging and deterioration of materials, loss or return of interest in a particular topic, or completely random and unpredictable events.
Secondly, having been engaged in architectural photography for over 30 years, I have formulated for myself the main condition under which photography is considered by me to be precisely "architectural". Such a condition is the inclusion of a specific image in the process of professional communication, which greatly narrows the field of publicity that such a photograph claims.
Thirdly, I am not at all close to the paradigm of the information flow, in which events - texts, images, buildings - exist only insofar as they imply a mandatory complete change in a regular cycle of renewal, including the most radical form of cessation of existence, oblivion. Here photography, the very raison d'être of which is technical prosthetics of memory, contradicts itself.
Of the recent projects that I consider the most significant, I will single out three. Firstly, this is teaching at the MARCH architecture school, where I participate in several programs, ranging from a short course in architectural photography at the Preparatory Department to working in the Novgorod studio for the third year of my bachelor's degree. Together with my friends and wonderful architects Kiril Ass and Anton Gorlenko, I am leading my diploma architectural project. We, of course, use photography both as a research technique and as a means of project visualization and even as a design tool.
Secondly, the work on the book series of the Moscow Institute of Modernism and the Garage Museum. These are reference books-guides on the architecture of the post-war modernism of the cities of the USSR. Now books about Moscow and Alma-Ata have been published, Leningrad is being prepared. And here cooperation with close friends, Anna Bronovitskaya and Nikolai Malinin, is extremely important for me. I am also very glad that my long-time graduate Olga Alekseenko, a wonderful architecture photographer, is shooting a book about Tashkent.
Thirdly, this is cooperation with the magazine "Art", where I work together with the wonderful Alina Streltsova. My last job in a magazine is especially important for me, since there is not a single photograph there. However, I consider it to be completely photographic. This is my interview about the Austrian architect Hermann Cech, in which I try to show the importance of the principled “non-photogenicity” of his work.
Recently, I have been working very little with modern buildings, limiting myself to filming for close friends: Alexander Brodsky, Kiril Ass and Nadia Korbut, Anton Gorlenko, Manuel Hertz, Olga Treyvas, Artem Slizunov and several other architects and designers.
Isolation during quarantine required a lot of work on restructuring the educational process at MARSH and, since it fell on the period of the greatest activity in the preparation of graduation projects, time flew by unnoticed.
Mikhail Rozanov
Mikhail Rozanov is compared to Alexander Rodchenko, art critics write about him, journalists take extensive interviews, his works are in the collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Russian Museum. Mikhail graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, and as an artist formed at the New Academy of Timur Novikov at the St. Petersburg Pushkinskaya, 10. Since 2010, Mikhail devoted six years to teaching at the Faculty of Photography at the British Higher School of Design in Moscow. Once Yuri Avvakumov called the photographer "a minimalist in all respects", Mikhail has been faithful to this trend for many years: the distinctive features of his works are monochrome, laconicism and conceptuality.
Photographer's site
In March, I finished shooting European modernist architecture, which lasted for a year. Ten countries: Italy, Germany, England, Serbia, Spain, Hungary, etc. Anna Bronovitskaya acted as a consultant. She will also be the curator of the exhibition, which we are preparing together with the Ruarts Foundation for the Support and Development of Contemporary Art.
In May, I was supposed to start a series on the architecture of totalitarian Italy, but everything stopped due to the closure of borders. While preparatory work is underway: selection of locations and viewing archives.
Alexey Naroditsky
Alexey is a graduate of the Stroganov School, a member of the Union of Artists, photographs for the Archstoyanie festival, the Museum of Moscow, KB Strelka, is published in Domus and Interni, travels a lot, and is also engaged in non-commercial projects. In 2018, for example, a map of the architecture of the Moscow metro, created with his participation, was released.
Photographer's site
Starting an Instagram account, I decided not to turn it into a portfolio, there is a website for this. Photos in @alexeynarodizkiy are wonderful moments of life, memories of your favorite architectural objects that you were lucky enough to see. During the pandemic, all the projects I worked on were suspended. Some, like the exhibition in the park of the Polytechnic Museum, have resumed and are already close to opening, others, like an exhibition on the architecture of the Moscow metro in the Museum of Moscow, have been postponed to a later date.
I also have other accounts: @ moscow_metro_architecture is dedicated to the metro topic @babilonline, and @_mosquito_ is one large constantly transforming canvas photo. Exercise in the graphic transformation of the Instagram feed.
Denis Esakov
Denis Esakov's works were published in many magazines, including Archdaily and Inhabitat, were exhibited at the Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchusev and MMOMA. Denis's works are mostly research: for example, how the triumphant architecture of modernism turns into gray boxes in our minds, or how the bulk of a brutalist building suddenly becomes decorative due to the proximity to new residential complexes. There are also less serious, game projects: shooting hidden from the eyes of the citizens of the "fifth facade" of Moscow, made with the help of a drone, or maps of the drift in Pskov and Berlin.
Photographer's site
I was born in the Soviet-Kyrgyz city of Przhevalsk, renamed in the 90s to Karakol, which literally means "Black Hand". I became interested in photography in Moscow ten years ago. At first he shot geometric abstractions, reducing the city to an understandable aesthetic pleasure, and a little later, on the advice of a photographer friend, he began to look at the world wider and shoot architecture first, then the city. After two years of studying philosophy and art, in parallel with photography, I began to work with space as an artist. Now I photograph architecture and the city for publishers and architects.
An empty city without people is a vivid picture of the time of a pandemic. At first glance, this is an architecture photographer's dream. It was a strong impression for me. In the past few years, I've basically included people in photography, or even drifted with a lot of people. He filled the urban fabric with people.
An empty city is a disturbing place. Until I had the opportunity to fully walk around, I opened my archives and started adding digital glitch to my photos, amplifying the effect of the alienation of an empty city. This project is called "Broken Language", I hope to publish it closer to autumn"
Ilya Ivanov
Ilya Ivanov has been professionally photographing architecture for over 20 years. After studying at the Moscow Architectural Institute, he participated in the project of Yuri Avvakumov "24", and he considers his first serious work to photograph the houses of Totan Kuzembaev. If a modern building got into Ilya's lens, it can be considered that it received a quality mark: the photographer is selective and does not work with every building. Among the latest objects captured: the Zoya Museum, a house with glass columns on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, Filatov Lug and Nizhegorodskaya metro stations.
Photographer's site
Andrey Belimov-Gushchin
Andrei's biography is, without exaggeration, exciting: childhood in a village on the shores of Lake Baikal, nine grades of school due to ADHD, independent life from the age of 17 and a criminal past. Due to the syndrome, Andrei could not work anywhere for a long time and by the age of 40 he had changed 26 professions. Having moved to St. Petersburg, he began to take pictures of architecture on a whim, working as a taxi driver - on trips I noticed interesting houses and "clean" facades without advertising and wires. Once an advertising photographer Timur Turgunov appeared in the passenger seat, who discerned the handwriting in Andrey's works and suggested that it was possible to earn money on it. It took a year to analyze the market. Filming, already targeted, continued, with passengers becoming the first clients. The project with which Andrei announced himself and received large customers: a series of photographs of the interiors of St. Petersburg palaces and mansions.
Photographer's site
This niche has its own unshakable rules that must be followed so that serious clients pay attention to you. For novice photographers, I can only recommend continuous selfless work. Even if there are pauses between commercial orders, try to shoot what you like and see as a way to demonstrate your presence in the market.
Instagram, in my opinion, is a universal platform and offers the shortest path to the end consumer and potential client. It is important to constantly replenish the portfolio and not just everyone in a row, but namely with iconic, bright and unique objects for the market of professional interests. Unfortunately, many have it in their heads that the more subscribers and likes, the cooler you are. But this most often does not work in a narrow niche. You can have 1000 subscribers, but all of them will be from the professional environment of architects, management companies, consulting and owners of large hotel chains and business centers. They will bring stable large orders, not just mindless likes.
Olga Alekseenko
Olga shoots for such publications as Afisha, Art Newspaper Russia, Dazed Digital, SCROOPE (UK), Wallpaper * (UK), takes part in publishing projects, collaborates with European architectural bureaus, teaches at MARSH and the British Higher School of Design. Ten years ago, Olga managed banking contact centers, was enthusiastically studying remote service technologies and did not plan to leave this area, but ended up taking a photography course with Yuri Palmin, and now teaches with him at MARSH at the preparatory department.
Photographer's site
When I found out about the additional higher education in the field of photography in British, I decided to enroll. At first I took up any kind of shooting, and at the end of the first course I started architectural photography, and it immediately became clear that it was for me. In my second year, I studied at the workshop of Yuri Palmin.
Architecture turned out to be infinitely interesting for me, and from all points of view - historical, political, cultural, sociological and philosophical. Almost every shooting brings new knowledge and impressions. I don't know under what other circumstances I could be on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater or in the cockpit of an airplane, or watch Pivovarov's exhibition alone.
Teaching gives me the opportunity to keep myself in an intellectual tone within the profession, to develop together with students, although shooting is still the main and most favorite thing.
Polina Poludkina
Polina studied at the Moscow Architectural Institute and loved the theory of architecture rather than practice, which she graduated from on the same day she defended her diploma. The search for his own path led to the studio of Yuri Palmin, who helped to combine two hobbies - photography and architecture. Polina's projects include a study of Soviet mosaics, as well as the Obedinenie online gallery.
The work of the photographer
When I pay attention to architecture, I am primarily interested in its vibe, connection with time, moods in society, regularities, strangeness. I love to find certain repetitions, structure them, come up with questions myself and look for answers to them. This is how my passion for Soviet mosaics appeared, which I finally decided this year to revive and continue. In mosaics, I am attracted by the combination of paradoxes - technology, plots, propaganda, similarities with icons and the architecture on which they appear. At the same time, it is important that photography for me is just a tool for fixing and helping in my observations. It is not so important for me to shoot a building “correctly” as to see it from the most dynamic angle in every sense. For a long time I even forgot to take pictures, I just watched. Now I decided to return again, while in the easy mode of posts on Instagram. Let's see what it will turn into.
Dmitry Chebanenko
Dmitry graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute and worked as an architect for a long time, but at some point he decided to move away from office work and devote himself to photography. Over the past seven years, Dmitry has collaborated with most of the large bureaus of our country, with foreign companies, traveled half of the country and worked in England, Austria and France. Now Dmitry can afford to photograph the architecture he likes, shooting two or three objects a week.
Photographer's site
The transition from architectural design to the field of architectural photography turned out to be quite seamless, since I was already in the right environment, all that remained was to announce to my colleagues that I was now shooting and taking money for it. The first large orders came after a year and a half, before that I worked mainly with interiors and shot public objects that I liked myself. As a result, the first portfolio was formed.
A lot of time has passed since then, but I remember several shootings: for example, the Museum of Rural Labor, designed by Sergei Choban and Agnia Sterligova in Nikola-Lenivets in 2015, or the Crimean embankment, whose footage was published in many specialized media. Separately, I would like to note the project An environment of coexistence, which Anna Martovitskaya and I did within the framework of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Architecture. This work consisted of a photo-essay and a text on the vernacular architecture of Yerevan. Recently, I remember the shooting of the Akademik business center by UNK bureau, the shooting of the Skolkovo techno-park for Valode & Pistre and, of course, the ZOYA museum by A2M bureau.
Now I try to deviate a little from academism, although without it it is difficult in architectural photography, shoot more of my own non-commercial series and remember to put aside the camera and relax so that the dream job does not turn into a routine one day.
Evgeny Evgrafov
Evgeniy combines architectural photography with other activities. Instagram account is small, but it is distinguished by a selection of interesting objects and a variety of content. The last post, for example, is a mini-film about Azatlyk Square in Naberezhnye Chelny for the Dutch bureau DROM. For Pik Media Evgeniy prepared a detailed material “How to become an architectural photographer”.
Photographer's site
Architectural photography is not my main specialty; I earn my living as an art director in various media projects. And he came to her when they were doing a rather cheerful Russian version of Interni with Dima Barbanel. I have always liked shooting nature and it turned out that this knowledge of technique and shooting modes just perfectly superimposed on my compositional flair. The most interesting was the work for one secret customer, when it was necessary to shoot important landmark objects like Zaryadye and Luzhniki for a month. Now I live in Sochi and after the quarantine I almost never shoot, not everyone is ready to pay for the flight, and the local objects have all been filmed for a long time. The main credo: we must do the work in such a way that in front of ourselves and colleagues there is no shame. This market is small, and sooner or later everyone will see your horrors.
Fedor Savintsev
The snapshot of Fedor Savintsev with a snow-covered village near Arkhangelsk became the best at the Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) in the Architecture category in 2018. The jury called the photo "an example of a great visual story." Fedor really talks a lot: about dachas, wooden houses, ancestral nests, the outback and its inhabitants. A large page on Yandex. Dzene is devoted to stories. Once Fedor worked as a chief photographer at ITAR-TASS, and also founded the Imatek bureau, which supports Russian photography: he purchases photographs, sponsors exhibitions and the publication of books.
Photographer's site
Now I am collecting stories about houses in the village of Kratovo, mostly Soviet country architecture, which has not been fully dealt with. It is difficult to classify it, but what attracts me to this story is the moment of individualization of typical buildings. Most of the houses were built according to standard designs, but the owners, being creative people, were able to bring many individual features into the architecture, which is why I shoot according to the principle: not the importance of surnames, but originality.
The advice for beginners is very simple, you need to greedily explore the outgoing history, it is too fragile to be dismissive. And my clear conviction is that it is architecture that could become that cultural code, the notorious braces that everyone is looking for. Family and home are what needs to be put on a pedestal of learning, because it is respect for family history that can revive culture.
Sergey Kovyak
Sergey's work was among the 15 best architectural photographs at the 2020 Creative Photo Awards. Sergey was born and lives in Novomoskovsk, studied to be a mechanical engineer and still works in his specialty, but calls photography his life. Sergei calls himself a reportage photographer, and accordingly, architecture and the city come into the lens very often, and in its most "alive" form.
Photographer's site
Not often, but architectural objects still appear in my photographs. No, of course, all sorts of buildings and structures are always present in my street photos, but at the same time they play a secondary role, act as some kind of background. But sometimes my imagination "explodes" at the sight of this or that architectural object! Then, of course, this object is given the leading role! But in this case, I try to show architecture not from the documentary side, but from the artistic side. How can this be achieved? Many different factors are taken into account. First of all - Light, the basis of photography. Next is the choice: color or monochrome? Depends on mood, volume and atmosphere. What will display the texture more profitably? Photography itself is magic! How else? After all, it makes it possible (of course, in capable hands) to display the volumetric world in a two-dimensional interpretation. This is a very important point for shooting architectural objects! Another important point is to find the right angle. Out of thousands of shots of the same object, there may be one that will boggle your imagination! And this is thanks to the right angle. To make you feel the space, to see your habitat with a new look - this is what an interesting architectural photography means. And yet, in order to avoid static in the frame of architecture, I personally always try to catch (place) a person or an animal in the created composition. This gives a certain movement, dynamics to photography. Why do I like to shoot windows? Here's a simple answer. Good photography is always a mystery. And what could be more mysterious than windows? There is always some history behind them …
Ivan Muraenko
Over the past four years, he has received a considerable number of publications and prizes in international photo contests, learned to monetize his new activities. Currently engaged in "visual research in the field of architectural aesthetics."
I started taking photographs with film when I was 16. Then I got my first digital camera - the casio qv-2900ux. Rotating 8x lens unit, built-in color filters, such a proto-Instagram. Without her, in principle, I did not go out and in a couple of years I took more than 30 thousand pictures. Later, really good shots began to turn out.
There were some local successes - personal and group exhibitions, participation in the Silver Camera 2007. At that time no one took photography as a profession seriously, I had a financial education and I began to build a career. By general standards, I did everything right, and the photo gradually faded into the second, third and even fourth plan. Five years ago I discovered that I am 32, I have a small apartment, a car, expensive clothes, recognition from colleagues, but I do not want to get out of bed in the morning. The only thing I, like at 16, wanted to do was photography.
I called on all the dementia and courage that I had, quit my job and went to Photoplay - to Vanya Knyazev, Vlada Krasilnikova, Anton Gorbachev. The guys gave me an incredible impetus, faith in my strength and the long-awaited feeling of oxygen. After a series of experiments, I finally decided that I wanted to do architectural photography. I am attracted by the conciseness and purity of forms, the complexity of materials, how unexpectedly seemingly utilitarian objects can be shown. Once I found my niche, it worked.
Daniil Annenkov
Shooting architecture began as a hobby, and now Daniel's photographs can be found in all important architectural publications. While photographing the modern architecture of megalopolises, Daniel seeks to reliably tell about the building and at the same time to arouse admiration and desire in the viewer to see the object for himself.
I did not study architectural photography, it was my hobby. I am interested in modern architecture, and photography was a way of learning about it. When I saw this or that object or space, I wanted to keep it to myself. From the very beginning, this began to arouse the interest of my audience on Instagram, customers began to appear, the hobby grew into the main activity. It is important for me that the result obtained meets two criteria: information and beauty. I will not take a shot that is informative, but ugly, and vice versa.
Dmitry Tsyrenschikov
Dmitry fled from studying photography at the St. Petersburg Institute of Culture to the editorial office of The Village, where he worked as a staff photographer for some time. A year later, a part-time job for Airbnb appeared, private orders for architectural and interior photography, and travel for the sake of architecture began. Now Dmitry is shooting for various bureaus, from the memorable works he names the projects of the Minsk studio Studio 11, and advises beginners to follow the perspective.
Photographer's site
Dmitry Yagovkin
Dmitry studied to be an interior designer at one of the Moscow universities and at the same time worked in the professional laboratory "Photolab" as a scanning operator, where a huge number of slides and negatives from both novice photographers and world-famous photographers passed through him. The world he saw captivated and captured: Dmitry bought film Pentax from a developer in installments and began his first steps in a new field. The ability to develop, scan, print, and receive constructive criticism from colleagues in the workplace has facilitated rapid progress. Over time, Dmitry realized that architectural photography was closest to him in spirit and began to conduct Instagram, where he began to upload his photo experiments.
Photographer's site
I do not like vanity and I think that it interferes with work. Taking photographs of architecture takes a thoughtful approach. This was the decisive factor in the choice of the field. As for my favorite projects, I love them all - everyone is dear and loved in their own way. Still, I would like to celebrate my trip to Shanghai and Shenzhen, where I shot three major objects for an American architectural firm. These customers found me exactly through Instagram, so the first advice to novice photographers: do not underestimate the possibilities of this platform in terms of professional promotion. I would also like to advise you to travel more with your camera, go to exhibitions, participate in competitions and not be afraid to make mistakes.
