Photographers of the F/50 collective in the built environment.

AN EXHIBITION OF RECENT WORKS.

The photographers in the f50 collective embrace many genres. One of those being the creation of images of architecture in the built environment.

Architectural photography has a long history and has had many excellent practitioners, Julius Shulman and Balthazar Korab to name just two; both of whom were working before the advent of digital rendering and manipulation. And both working with large plate cameras with bellows and moveable lens and film holders – this allowed for the correction of verticals and other visual manipulations in camera.

Today things are slightly different. High quality digital rendering of the image with the possibility of altering the digital render with photo manipulation software makes architectural work simpler, but, perhaps not better. Added to the ability to manipulate the image post shooting as been the stylistic additions afforded by modern lenses, particularly the ultra wide. Distortions inherent in the use of these lenses are a desired part of the finished image. For the purist there remains something indefinable about using a plate camera. It forces a much slower pace and a patience that somehow becomes evident in the finished images.

For some of the f50 group architectural photography is but one slice of their oeuvre. Nevertheless the quality of these images show it’s not simply a ‘tag on’ to their other mainstream work, but is a deeply felt element of their artistic psyche and style.

Exhibiting photographers in alphabetical order:- PD Barton Keith Goldstein Tony Harratt John Meehan