Architecture exists in the absence of photography, but its vicarious experience through photography is the predominant way we learn about buildings and their unique attributes. Images are mobile; buildings are not. So of course, there is a correlation between the quality of the picture capturing a work of architecture and how the viewer comes to perceive it. Whoever photographs a work of architecture can make or break it, celebrate or condemn it. The image-maker leaves an imprint on the observer, shaping the understanding of the work across time, positioning it in the universe of references that makes up the history of the field.
Though architecture is inherently experiential—cinematic and fourth-dimensional—photography fixes the viewpoint: it cuts off the peripheral field of vision and frames space within the technological limits of its era. Those are objective facts of photography, but subjectivity is at play as well. The photograph carries the signature of its maker, who creates it to have a particular effect, which can reverberate far into the future.
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