ZOOM! Architektur und Stadt im Bild – Andres Lepik

Contemporary architecture is faced with a host of exceptional dilemmas: within the context of continuing global urbanisation, the increasing challenges posed by immigration and social inequality, and amidst crumbling cities and the relentless expansion of slums, architecture now has to prove its social relevance for the future. Architectural photography plays a central role in this regard, serving both as a means of communication between architects and clients, as well as a way of imparting information to a general public. Thus far it has generally produced images in which architecture is portrayed as a series of constructed objects, without reference to their respective uses. Increasing numbers of photographers, however, are shifting their focus to those living and working spaces that have not been planned by architects.

The exhibition ‘Zoom! Picturing Architecture and the City’ presents photographs and video works by eighteen contemporary international photographers. Their images focus on the complex interrelations among society, architecture, and urban spaces. They provide insight into how buildings actually operate once the building contractors have left the premises, and how city and town structures are impacted by economic factors, as well as their inhabitants’ social and cultural backgrounds. The evident failures often occurring in the planning or modification of buildings point to specific conclusions about people’s actual needs.

This catalogue features image series by 18 photographers whose oeuvres focus on forms of architectural photography that are situated beyond the architecture and art markets. Instead, they thematize the social, economic, and political framing conditions of global society and the constructed spaces it inhabits. From depictions of rural idylls in the Upper Palatinate all the way to international megacities, these “to some extent ironic and critical images quite clearly” underscore “the degree of divergence that exists between built reality and the conventional photography of architecture as seen in glossy magazines. The result is an enthralling panopticon that documents the architectural outcomes of political systems and social deficits on the basis of striking image series from around the world.”

First published by Walther König

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Paperback: 208 pages

Publisher: Walther König, Köln; Bilingual edition (July 28, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 3863357353

ISBN-13: 978-3863357351

Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 0.7 x 10.9 inches