by Olha Romaniuk

Created on: May 06, 2009

Careful framing of pieces, cornices, fragments of porticos, hints of steel beams acting as a primary structure for light metal decking, roof gardens nested within private zones of a big city as a reminding hint of foreign wilderness these are the details, the moments that are captured by a lens of a photographer, mindful of his or her surroundings, aware of the capabilities of architecture to create settings, moods, feelings. The modern sensibility of being able to frame everything, of juxtaposing elements of the contemporary world, the familiar and the ordinary in a specific, authentic way is the beautiful byproduct, accidentally conceived by the culture that is so painfully obsessed with observing itself, with scrutinizing itself in the media. Television situational comedies, reality shows is a big digital frame through which we all view the rest of the world. Our media oriented minds are used to the precise targeting by the advertisers we endure every day. We may no longer be aware of how we view the world or how it is presented to us, but it is all framed the sidewalks, the neon night club signs, store display windows, neo-Gothic cathedrals. They are all framed for our view, all created for the viewing pleasure of the masses.

In his book How The Media Shapes The World and The Way You Live in It, Thomas de Zengotita states that nothing in this world, not in the way we experience it, is coincidental. Everything is arranged so that we can experience it in a certain way. And even though being made aware that all things in our lives carry some message is a relatively new concept, the film makers, TV show producers, painters and photographers have been cashing in on the phenomenon for more than a few years now.

How do we view architecture through the lens of a photographer? What is he or she trying to capture with placing his or her camera a certain way, zooming in on some things and completely blurring out the others? If we are self-aware of the moment of viewing, we are left wondering if we are being presented a photographer's agenda, flawlessly hidden behind the bricks and mortar of the building cladding but yet always there. If we are not aware of anything, we just enjoy the pretty picture and move on with our media-framed lives, without thinking twice.

Documenting a work of architecture through photographs can be a byproduct of collaboration between an architect and a photographer, where the pictures are taken at deliberate angles, with a precise

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