Way back early days of digital cameras—those chunky, plastic contraptions that made everyone a worse photographer but a better liar about it—architects were in trouble. Not with their buildings, those were impeccable. No, their trouble was with people. Specifically, putting people into the spaces they designed.
Architectural photos back then were mostly barren landscapes. Perfectly framed lines and shadows, devoid of the messy humanity that would eventually inhabit them. You’d look at these photos and wonder if anyone had ever visited, or had already come and gone, leaving behind nothing but immaculate lobbies and impeccably poured concrete.
This is where the first digital camera came in. Not the exact first, mine was a Canon Eos 1D mk ii, cutting edge 8MP, the technology of the future, in 2004. Sans slow film, slow lenses, tons of kit and endless colour and contrast problems, and the inevitable 8 second exposures, the fast Canon generated a wonderful possibility: What if buildings were photographed with people in them?
Architects scoffed. People? In photos of buildings? Sacrilege! People were unpredictable. They wore colors that clashed with carefully curated tones. They brought coffee cups into sanctified spaces. They sat in chairs that were meant to be looked at. Horror!
Well, it was a conundrum, I was very keen to get to grips with people in architecture, but couldn’t get commissioned. Then Isabel Allen and I had a brainwave. Let’s photograph architects in their offices! Who could say no? We would get great editorial, and peopled spaces, seed an idea, start a movement!
‘In Practice’ was born, The Architects Journal would run a year of environmental portraits, 52 images (yes it was weekly then). All photographed in a style based in my early work in music photography, blended with the formal perspective and compositional rigour of my large format architectural work. All influenced by Vermeer and Rembrandt.
Suddenly, these spaces began to breathe and tell a story. The first image, Terry Farrell reading a book, 16th April 2004 at 13:36, a ground breaking 1/5th second at f11 on a 45mm tilt shift lens—in a blur of studio chaos—made it clear: this was a place where life happened.
The digital camera, despite its pixelated imperfections, became a new tool for persuasion. It wasn’t just about selling a building. It was about seeing a human truth: the idea that these spaces were meant for people, not just for magazine spreads.
‘In Practice’ evolved into the AJ 40 under 40 of 2005. The series was exhibited at the V&A and RIBA Portland Place. It lives on at Architecture Today Magazine, where we are in Pre-Production for the Regenerative Architecture portraits.
