Architectural Abstractions

The good folks at Hidden City Philadelphia noticed one or two of my abstractions and asked if I had more or would be willing to shoot a few more. I happily obliged, but, unfortunately, they didn’t have enough room to run the full text I had written. That said, I’ve included it here, along with a few of the images. To see more, visit the post over at Hidden City … This series was later published in CONTEXT, the journal of AIA Philadelphia.

Consider this my full admission of guilt.

With a background in newspapers and arts and culture, I knew little about architecture before I signed on as the communications director for a branch of what is arguably the largest architecture nonprofit in the country. Of course, I knew what I liked and didn’t like, aesthetically, but in the four and a half years since I’ve been on the job I’ve learned a lot and have come to appreciate the importance of architects, designers, planners, and just about everyone else involved in the built environment.

Not everyone has the luxury of being surrounded by architects, and for them architecture can be just something we stroll by, through, or over every day without stopping to think about its role or importance in our city. In my mind, photography serves as a gateway to understanding and appreciating architecture, whether it is gazing longingly at the technically perfect, two-page spreads in just about any shelter magazine to the full-color plans complete with Photoshoped folks moving through conceived designs.

In my personal work, which is often born from lunchtime walks with a camera in hand, buildings become a prime target when not much is happening on the street. One of the more common complaints I’ve heard about Philadelphia’s architecture is that we have quite a few inaccessible cold, concrete buildings with Brutalist or just plain baffling concepts. Now, I’ll readily admit I made my fair share of jokes about the core buildings that make up Temple University’s main campus back when I was a student there, but I’ve come to love buildings like this. There’s something fascinating to me when you break them down into geometrical slices. The symmetry … the lines … the shadows … there’s something transformative about a building when viewed this way. Oftentimes, they cease acting as buildings and become whatever the viewer wants them to be, functional abstract art on a grand and highly visible scale.