Architects should be inspired by photography books. Here are some recommended recent arrivals.
“Photography alters reality. Also, photography is unavoidable.” This is one of many invented aphorisms that rattle around in my brain. What I mean is: To make an image of something is to isolate it from its context. Once it is disconnected, the image can tell the story desired by its storyteller. A photograph of a building is not the same thing as the building itself.
And yet, simultaneously, we are utterly reliant on photography to convey what architects make. These images are the tip of the iceberg; they stand in for so much labor that lies hidden beneath their surfaces. (This is part of what I discussed with Christopher Payne about his show Made in America.)
Architecture culture depends on the rapid circulation of photography, at least until video supersedes its static older sibling. The ongoing collapse of the media economy means that trade publications are reliant on photography paid for by the architects, so in this sense, regardless of what the text says, architects establish the visual narrative through deciding when the project will be shot, who will take the photos, how to edit them, which ones to release to the media, and to which publications, when.
The regulated control of images, timed for client announcements, embargoes, or exclusives, determines what the professional public sees and when they see it. Of course, this process is undermined by social media, where people can share snaps of work in process, construction sites, or completed buildings before (or after) their completion, in all their un-Photoshopped splendor.
Architecture culture depends on the rapid circulation of photography, at least until video supersedes its static older sibling. (Melania Dalle Grave)Architects are awash in images, but they are often consumed without criticality. (Yes, the same could be said about our postliterate culture more broadly.) I often turn to the world of photography for lessons on how to develop a deeper relationship with images, where the focus turns towards one’s way of seeing—and where documentation is detached from the politics of the act of commissioning.
I seek out examples where the context of the built environment—its mess, junk, and liveliness—is part of the scene rather than something to be avoided. One highlight was the 2024 book Analogue Images, Rory Gardiner, Maxime Delvaux, which accompanied an exhibition of the work of the two photographers in Sydney.
Inspired by the ongoing exhibition Photobooks USA 2000–25 at the International Center of Photography in New York, what follows are some interesting recent photobooks and image-focused architecture. Some take buildings and histories as their subjects, while others merely involve the built environment in larger aesthetic ambitions.
The House That Kahn Built: The National Assembly Building in Dhaka by Louis Kahn by Kashef Chowdhury (Courtesy Quart Verlag)The House That Kahn Built: The National Assembly Building in Dhaka by Louis KahnKashef ChowdhuryQuart Verlag
Chowdhury’s photographs of Dhaka’s National Assembly Building allow us to see him seeing a masterpiece. Some of the images date back to a 2001 exhibition where Chowdhury’s work was shown on the plaza outside, in celebration of Kahn’s 100th birthday. Kahn’s influence on Chowdhury’s architecture is evident even in early projects, like the early Pavilion Apartment, completed with Marina Tabassum, also in 2001.
Bad Language by Max Creasy (Courtesy Architectural Association)Bad LanguageMax CreasyArchitectural Association
This brief publication was made for Creasy’s show at the AA last fall. It puts one photograph on a page and includes a text by Frida Grahn. Creasy, who works between London and Berlin, shoots with a loose, heavy-flash style that feels indebted to fashion. Astute readers may detect that the final photograph of the book, from a project by Lütjens Padmanabhan, was published in AN Interior in 2024. And Creasy’s photographs of Wenche Selmer’s homes were a central part of a story by Bridget Goldberg in the last issue of AN Interior.
Five Buildings by Frank Gehry by Johan Dehlin (Courtesy Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König)Five Buildings by Frank GehryJohan DehlinVerlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König
In 2015, Swedish architect and photographer Johan Dehlin documented five early projects by Frank Gehry. He also redrew their site plans, floor plans, elevations, and sections. The images show current uses and how the buildings have held up over the years. Texts by Hilary Sample and Tom Emerson kick off the book.
Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925–35 edited by Edward Dimendberg (Courtesy Getty Publications)Richard Neutra and the Making of the Lovell Health House, 1925–35Edited by Edward DimendbergGetty Publications
Richard Neutra’s Lovell Health House has been restored by Escher GuneWardena. Ahead of this reveal, AN contributor Ed Dimendberg delivers a superb deep dive into the making of the influential residence. The texts are supplemented by ample historic photographs by Willard Morgan and recent photos from 2021 (pre-glowup!) by Grant Mudford.
Portrait of J by Takashi Homma (Courtesy Dashwood Books/Session Press)Portrait of JTakashi HommaDashwood Books/Session Press
Homma is a famous Japanese photographer; I love his book series where he takes pictures of ocean waves. Homma recently shot a Johnston Marklee house for the debut issue of Cultured at Home. The result is decidedly more personal and moodier than what you’d get if you let other architecture photographers loose on the property. In Portrait of J—is the J for Japan?—Homma’s portraits communicate “empathy and a desire to observe people as they are, free from manipulation or staging.” SANAA’s Kazuyo Sejima is on the cover.
Pyramids: Special Economic Vortex Zones of North America by Ian James (Josh Schaedel/Courtesy The Fulcrum Press and Special Effects)Pyramids: Special Economic Vortex Zones of North AmericaIan JamesThe Fulcrum Press and Special Effects
One tactic for a photo project is to select a condition/typology/shape and chase it across the American landscape. Here, James studies late-20th–century pyramids across North America and frames “his travels as a form of spiritual pilgrimage under late capitalism.” The granddaddy of them all, the Bass Pro Shop pyramid in Memphis, looms large. An essay by Aurora Tang, formerly of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, is included.
Foundations by Naho Kubota (Courtesy Dog Years)FoundationsNaho KubotaDog Years
The size of a vinyl record sleeve, Foundations presents Naho Kubota’s documentation of auto body shops in New York. The photographs are abstract shots of car metals, empty shop interiors, and smudged paint rooms. Color arrives in foamy remnants of taxi-cab yellows, and a handful of images appear on translucent rice paper, which collapses them onto surrounding pages. A short text by Jesús Vassallo accompanies the portfolio.
Casa Gomis Bertrand/La Ricarda edited by Iker Gil with photos by James Florio (Courtesy MAS Context)Sam and Ruth Van Sickle Ford House and Casa Gomis Bertrand/La RicardaEdited by Iker GilPhotos by James FlorioMas Context
The first two in a series of single-home books by Mas Context, these titles take a deep dive into one residential project. The first is a Bruce Goff home in Illinois, and the second, designed by Antonio Bonet Castellana, is southwest of Barcelona. Florio’s film images are the results of multiday shoots. The books were designed by Normal.
Analogous JerusalemGili MerinHumboldt Books
Merin, an architect and a photographer, researched the idea of Jerusalem through a five-year photography project. Inspired by Allan Sekula and the 1975 exhibition New Topographics, Merin sought traces of Jerusalem in remote sites across Europe, and her own journey is part of the story: “The book itself becomes a part of the phenomenon it sets out to explore.” The prologue is by Pier Vittorio Aureli.
Sit, site, chair, cherry by Aleix Plademunt (Courtesy Spector Books)Sit, site, chair, cherryAleix PlademuntSpector Books
Plademunt was invited by Vitra leader Rolf Fehlbaum to photographically explore the campus in 2022. He made four trips, and the resulting compilation arrives with four different covers. He aimed to combine the various motifs “supplemented by a number of historical photographs, to create an image of a place where you can sense the meaning and importance of design—as utopia and as everyday work.” The work moves from architecture to furniture and people in a pleasing and beautiful sequence.
FASHION by Mark Power (Courtesy GOST Books)FASHIONMark PowerGOST Books
The British photographer Power spent 27 years taking construction photographs in 23 countries. Fashion captures the best shots of industry in motion. As noted by The New Yorker, “Power assembled the collection with his editor, Stuart Smith, over seven years, sequencing images not by chronology or geography but by loose, associative principles: color, form, light.” Buyer beware: The book weighs over six pounds!
KA ME RA: Modern Japanese Architecture Through the Photographer’s Lens by Ari Seligmann (Courtesy Thames & Hudson)KA ME RA: Modern Japanese Architecture Through the Photographer’s LensAri SeligmannThames & Hudson
Seligmann tours readers through the postwar architecture photography scene in Japan. Profiled individuals include Yoshio Watanabe, Chuji Hirayama, Akio Kawasumi, Osamu Murai, Yukio Futagawa, Tomio Ohashi, Kiyoshi Takai, Shuji Yamada, and Mitsumasa Fujitsuka. Through understanding these photographers as artists, Seligmann asks: “Can documenting buildings in this way ever be entirely neutral?”
Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025 by Jamel Shabazz (Couresty Prestel)Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025Jamel ShabazzPrestel
Shabazz gives us a diverse portrait of Prospect Park enjoyers over the decades. Before becoming famous as a street photographer, he worked as a corrections officer and would seek refuge in the park after his shifts. Brooklyn stans should also seek out the recent Remembrance Garden: A Portrait of Green-Wood Cemetery by Eugene Richards for a four-seasons look at the nearby historic cemetery.
Distribution by Daniel Shea (Courtesy MACK)DistributionDaniel SheaMACK
Shea was an exhibitor at American Framing, the 2021 Pavilion of the United States at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. Here, a marathon sequencing of his hazy, urban imagery is set in sextets (two rows of three photos each). Grainy facades sit against forest textures to make a haunted set that explores the built environment.
Manhattan Project by Jan Staller (Courtesy Five Continents Editions)Manhattan ProjectJan StallerFive Continents Editions
New York City, perpetually under construction, is the subject of Staller’s 2025 book, which began work on in 2013. He isolates all manner of objects lifted by cranes: rebar cages, concrete formwork, IGUs, pipes, and more. Later spreads get to the dirt of backhoes and augers. More recently, Staller has been shooting the Gateway tunnel project, even as he is shooed away by security guards. The book’s foreword comes from Neil deGrasse Tyson, whose appreciative words note that peeking “behind the construction curtain requires an artist.”
The Houses of Guadalajara: Ghosts of Modernity, Ghosts of the Past edited by Jesús Vassallo and Jorge Alberto Muñoz (Courtesy Birkhäuser)The Houses of Guadalajara: Ghosts of Modernity/Ghosts of the PastEdited by Jesús Vassallo and Jorge Alberto MuñozBirkhäuser
With contemporary photographs by César Béjar and Rafael Palacios Macías, this bilingual new release studies two generations of architects in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city. The first involves 1920s contemporaries of Luis Barragán, who began practicing architecture here before relocating to Mexico City and was part of a movement known as the Escuela Tapatía, or the Guadalajara School. The second studies younger admirers of Barragán who in the 1980s realized a series of houses indebted to the previous group.
At Home in London: The Mews House by Ellis Woodman (Courtesy MACK/The Architecture Foundation)At Home in London: The Mews HouseEllis WoodmanMACK/The Architecture Foundation
The second in a series that looks at London housing typologies, this book by Ellis Woodman considers the splendor of the back house. Set within hidden back courts and alleys, the project type has invited thrifty experiments over the years and by current practitioners. (My favorite is the house on Regal Lane by John Winter.) The photography is by Matthew Blunderfield, who runs the great Scaffold podcast.
