Outdoor Photography Magazine, September 2010

10 Questions interview with Quintin Lake in Outdoor Photography Magazine September 2010 Issue 130

Acclaimed architectural photographer, Quintin Lake, tells Nick Smith how he made the transition from architecture to photography and why geometry really matters

Quintin Lake is recognised as one of the top creative architectural photographers at work today. Before embarking his photographic career, Quintin graduated from the world renowned Architectural Association in London where he held a scholarship and worked at Grimshaw Architects on the Eden project. His architectural training gives him an understanding of the subject, while his photographic approach is characterised by a fastidious attention to detail, which translates into intelligent and refined images.

Quintin’s clients include architects, interior designers, various publishers and magazines. His new book Drawing Parallels: Architecture Observed is a source of architectural inspiration from around the world, with material drawn from travels in over 60 countries. Quintin is a member of The Association of Independent Architectural Photographers, as well as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

1 When did you realise you were going to become a photographer?
I was an architect before I became a photographer and I used a camera
as a sketchbook for ideas. Gradually, I became more interested in the images, rather than just using a camera as a tool.

2 What was your first camera?
It was one of those rotating disc cameras with which I used to take blurry pictures of my thumb when I was ten. But while learning photography as a teenager I used a Praktica SLR film camera. I became a ‘Canon person’ when I was about 20.

3 What formal training do you have?
I studied architecture for seven years and did modules on photography during that time. I learned what I needed to learn to do the job.

4 How important is it to specialise?
I think it’s important from some clients’ perspectives, but as an artist I don’t think so. I have different portfolios to show different clients in architecture and other areas; it’s called market segmenting, I think.

5 What is the best assignment you’ve been on?
Going to Pripyat, a large deserted city within the 30km ‘zone of alienation’ around the Chernobyl reactor. It was the most focused shooting I’ve ever done and a very harrowing time. It’s an entire city with no people in it; no one will live there for hundreds of years.

6 What’s the worst thing about being a professional photographer?
On the commercial architecture side it’s waiting for the sun to come out. Clients don’t want pictures with grey skies. Also, there’s keeping the work coming in. If ever I got an assignment that lasted more than a couple of weeks that would feel like incredible stability.

7 Film or digital? Why?
Digital. Half of the creative process is taking the shot, and the other half is the post-production. Commercially it can be a chore, but if it is an artistic image this is where you refine it and make it your own.

8 What’s the most important thing you’re learned from another photographer?
Cartier-Bresson had it right when he said it was the mind, the heart and the eye that meet in the moment. But geometry is vital. No matter what else is going on in the image; I think the viewer reacts to it first graphically.

9 What does photography mean to you?
It encapsulates the enigma of life. It seems so simple as a still image and yet it can have infinite meaning with a unique visual language. In terms of my own life, it’s an excuse to keep a childlike curiosity.

10 What makes a great photograph?
It just grabs you and you know you’ve been grabbed. It’s an emotional thing.

Quintin – IN BRIEF
Age: 34
Time as pro: Ten years
Where based: Oxford
Specialities: Architecture, documentary and expedition
Studio or home: All on location, but post-production at home
Digital or film: Digital
Website: www.quintinlake.com

In Quintin’s kit bag
Cameras: Canon 5D, Canon 5D MkII
Lenses: Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L, Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4 L, Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS

Quintin Lake’s new book Drawing Parallels: Architecture Observed is available from all good bookshops. RRP £25 www.papadakis.net

Quintin Lake “Drawing Parallels: Architecture Observed” Papadakis, 2009
ISBN 978-1906506-04-9 (Hardcover, 208 pages. £25. Colour throughout)

Reviewed by William Arthurs, Editor, London Society Journal

This fascinating book collects about 200 photographs of natural features, buildings and architectural detail from many countries around the world. Each page spread presents two photographs, with brief commentary, for the reader to compare and contrast. It is reviewed here because fifteen of the images are drawn from the London area and it is on some of these that I comment below, along with their comparisons.

On pp. 22-3, a bleak Thames estuary landscape comprising the Barking Creek tidal barrier, resembling a giant guillotine, and the outfall of the Beckton Sewage Treatment works, is compared with a drier and more mysterious landscape in Yazd, Iran, with two square brick wind-towers, a conical brick building used as a refrigerator, and in the background a Zoroastrian Tower of Silence. I noted here the hidden nature of disposal – in the case of the Tower of Silence, the laying out of the corpses of the deceased on top of the tower is ritualistic, while the sewage works operate a mechanised and secular process of disposal (though one could compare some Victorian views of the sewer system, outlined by Dobraszczyk in “Into the Belly of the Beast”, also reviewed in this issue, and for which Quintin Lake provided the dustjacket image).

Next, on pp. 32-3, a comparison between the stump of one of the demolished Moorish-style chimneys at Abbey Mills pumping station (1865-8; these chimneys became redundant in the 1930s and were demolished during the Second World War) and the stump of the 14 th century Alau Minar brick minaret in Delhi, never completed. (Incidentally the Abbey Mills station as originally built is depicted on p. 114 of “Into the Belly of the Beast” and the chimneys are described on pp. 139 ff.). The Abbey Mills chimneys were 209 feet tall. The Delhi minaret was a more ambitious project as it was originally intended to be taller than its extant neighbour, Qutb Minar, at 240 feet the world’s tallest brick minaret.

On pp. 36-7, a view familiar to our readers from the cover of issue 457 – the columns of the old Blackfriars Railway Bridge – are compared with some Doric columns at the Temple of Hera at Paestum (550 BC). In both cases, columns are left supporting not much, but still standing – but compare the materials and finish, and how they have weathered.

On pp. 48-9 a detail of the terracotta columns around the main entrance to the Natural History Museum (Alfred Waterhouse, 1860-1880) are compared with 12th century lathe-turned sandstone temple balusters at Angkor Wat. Here we are invited to compare texture, colour, to imagine the different processes for firing terracotta and turning sandstone, and to consider the
function of the buildings – a temple of science, and a Hindu temple.

Later photographs include the Gherkin, the Tower of London, Rachel Whiteread’s “House”, and vernacular settings in Walthamstow and in South London. A thought-provoking and beautifully-photographed collection to which I have found myself returning on many occasions.

William Arthurs, Editor, London Society Journal

The London Society Journal is the magazine for members of the London Society and is published twice a year. The London Society was founded in 1912 and works to stimulate appreciation of London, to encourage excellence in planning and development, and to preserve its amenities and the best of its buildings.

Buy Drawing Parallels from Amazon UK here

Corners expressed II

Corner of the three-tier marble terrace leading to the Hall of Preserving Harmony in the Forbidden City. (Built from 1406 to 1420). Beijing, China, 2007

Buy prints and usage rights of these diptych images here which are featured in my architectural photography book, Drawing Parallels, Architecture Observed

Drawing Parallels

Architect and photographer Quintin Lake uses visual comparisons drawn from his extensive travels to produce a book of pairings of photographs that force us to re-examine the world around us and challenge our understanding of what constitutes architecture. Quintin currently uses an EOS 5D but he took other digital images in the book using an EOS 10D and 1Ds, and earlier analogue images using an EOS 1000,600 and EOS 1.

‘My photographs are from my travels to over 60 countries,” explains Quintin. “so technical difficulties were mos!ly climatic: humidity, heat and cold, and for the remoter locations, being a long time away from electricity. To deal with long periods away from mains power, such as Lesotho or Peru I carried half a dozen spare batteries which I found easier than using solar, which requires being in one location for an extended period.

“The wider angle and tilt-and-shift lenses offered by Canon are superior to anything offered by the competition, and these lenses are particularly important for photographing architecture. I also like the colour rendering and feel of the digital file. which just look ‘right’. The camera’s ergonomic design makes sense and using the EOS system has become second nature to me.

“I have two styles of photographing architecture: an urban safari and a more static Study. When I arrive at a new city or place I’ll walk around for hours on an urban safari to get a feel for a place and see the things of interest, which may not be in a guide-book. Therefore lightweight high quality lenses are the most important to me. The EF 24·105mm f4L is my most used lens for this kind of long urban walk. I often also carry an EF 100-400m  f4.5-5.6L as I like to pick out a graphic composition from the facade of a building, often from quite a distance. I also normally carry an EF 50mm /1.4 for very low light conditions. For a more static study of a building when I’ll spend a day or more there and won’t be walking around all day with the equipment, I’ll use a TS-E 24mm f3.5L and an EF 16·35mm f2,8L with a tripod.

Drawing Parallels, Architecture observed, Papadakis Publisher, £25 Order a copy from Amazon here

Waves & Ripples II
Detail of the concrete ribs which make up the façade of the Copan building, built by architect Oscar Niemeyer. São Paulo, Brazil, 2008

Buy prints and usage rights of these diptych images here which are featured in my architectural photography book, Drawing Parallels, Architecture Observed

Text & Photography © Quintin Lake, 2010

Shine through, shine out II
Neon advertising lights above Nanjing East Road. Shanghai, China, 2007

Buy prints and usage rights of these diptych images here which are featured in my architectural photography book, Drawing Parallels, Architecture Observed

Text & Photography © Quintin Lake, 2010

Sources of architectural inspiration from around the world

In this fascinating “un-guide book” Quintin Lake uses visual comparisons drawn from his extensive travels in more than 60 countries. From mega cities to the remotest villages, from man-made structures to natural forms, he takes us through series of pairings of photographs that that reveal hidden harmonies in the world around us and challenge our understanding of what constitutes architecture.

Beginning with ‘shape and surface’, comparisons are drawn between forms and textures in the man-made and natural world. ‘Organising space’ reveals the layers, divisions and structure of both vernacular and contemporary urban space. ‘Shelter’ covers all aspects of the home and survival from favela housing to skyscrapers and suburbia. ‘Memory and architecture’ reflects on the powerful aftermath of war and natural disasters and the visible passage of time through weathering. And finally ‘Architecture as Stage set’ examines the use or rather the mis-use of space for personal gratification, political drama or public narrative.

Quintin Lake is a photographer and architect. He studied at the Architectural Association and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. His extensive expeditions include Greenland, Uganda, Peru and Iran; recent solo exhibitions include Cities and Landscapes, Orquideas Interoceanicas and Pripiat: 21 Years After Chernobyl.

General Information

Press Release containing brief description, author biography and technical information from Papadakis Publisher (PDF) here

Book Cover Image (high res jpg)

An Architecture of Looking, Some directions for use. Foreword By Richard Wentworth

UK Stockists here

Media and Credit Information

Should you wish to feature any material from Drawing Parallels, I request that the following information be included within your piece:

1. Book Cover image (high res jpg)
2. Drawing Parallels: Architecture Observed by Quintin Lake
3. £25  www.papadakis.net

Should you wish to include any additional material, I would be happy to provide it on request. Questions may me emailed to me at mail@quintinlake.com

For review copy request please contact my publisher, Papadakis Publisher

Chapter Extracts

Summary text and two print resolution (300dpi) sample spreads from each chapter available to download as a PDF .

1. Seeing Shapes CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

2. Surface and Texture CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

3. Organising Space CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

4. Shelter and Home CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

5. Memory and Place CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

6. Architecture as Stage Set CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

7. Urban Horizons CLICK HERE FOR EXTRACT

All text and images © Quintin Lake. 2009

The greatest architectural gestures of our civilisation, the very epitome and physical embodiment of that civilisation, the apparently random and chaotic surge of something intended and planned, the phenomenal paradox of achievement and disaster, the home of ultimate construction and destruction, the Twenty-First century city, is outpacing any attempt to define its nature the very second an image is formed of it. How to represent, how to see, how to know, this most mercurial of forms, that constantly defies notions of what is attainable? As a photographer, the emerging conurbations, the fresh unimagined megalopolises demand a perspective. This is a quest for scope. These horizons, where the patterns and grids of vast populations are assembled out of seeming chaos, are a bright optimistic contribution, a means of attempting to see a future that is happening right now.

Constant sky

left: Downtown São Paulo seen from the top of the Edificio Italiano.With a population of eleven million residents São Paulo is the most populous city in the Southern hemisphere. São Paulo, Brazil, 2008

right: Cuzco seen from Christo Blanco. The city has a population of 350,000 and is located at an altitude of 3,300m. Peru, 2008

Click on image to enlarge or download Print Res (300dpi) PDF of this spread here

Slicing cities

left: Highway in downtown São Paulo. Brazil, 2008

right: A man ascending an arch of Lupu Bridge over the Huangpu River. Shanghai, China, 2007

Click on image to enlarge or download Print Res (300dpi) PDF of this spread here

< Previous Chapter Extract

Public places and buildings have the added dimension of acting as arenas for our lives. In the virtual era we have a heightened awareness of the nature of illusion, of the fact that we are at one and the same time both observing and participating.We see buildings as the backdrop to history and human drama, no longer as organic wholes to which we are connected. In a global village we become tourists and visitors to the sets of a world of other cultures. The photographer, always the contriver and exposer of visual illusion, is attuned to this particularly contemporary phenomenon. Cities and places continually present new ironies, making the observer constantly aware of the layers of transparency. People become orchestrated crowds, and architecture a grand theatrical set, yet individuals are still glimpsed, asserting the defiantly human amongst the towering forests of forms.

Up to the neck

left: Fibreglass shark sculpture erected in 1986, on the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Created by sculptor John Buckley for Bill Heine, who lives in the house. Neighbours tried to force Heine to remove the shark, but after an appeal to the UK’s Secretary of State for the Environment, it was allowed to remain. Oxford, England, 2009

right: Sculpted heads surrounding a front door in Lambeth. London, England, 2009

Click on image to enlarge or download Print Res (300dpi) PDF of this spread here

Spectating space

left: Seated viewers in front of Formal Session of the StateCouncil onMay 7, 1901, in honour of the 100th Anniversary of Its Founding by Ilya Yefimovich Repin, 1903, oil on canvas, State Russian Museum. St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007

right: A tour group outside Injeongjeon Hall (the throne hall), Changdeokgung palace. Originally built 1405, destroyed in the ImjinWars, restored 1609, destroyed by fire 1803. The current structure dates from 1804. Seoul, Korea, 2007

Click on image to enlarge or download Print Res (300dpi) PDF of this spread here

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