HomeArchitectural photography

Architectural photography

Photographie d’architecture

建築写真

Japarchi

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Published on Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Abstract

Echoing the 2023 Annual Seminar of Japarchi, the Scientific Thematic Network of Francophone Researchers on Japanese Architecture, City and Landscape is launching a new call for papers for the year 2024 on the Japanese notion of “architectural photography” or “kenchiku shashin 建築写真” which can be considered from a variety of perspectives including historical, heritage, artistic, economic, sociological, and more.

Announcement

Argument

“Architectural photography (kenchiku shashin 建築写真)” is an expansive and multifaceted notion, approached differently by architects, urban planners, interior designers, developers, publishers, amateur photographers, commissioned professional photographers, or artists. This confrontation of meanings and uses is what interests us. Indeed, while architectural photography has been widely and regularly displayed since the 19th century, through albums, dedicated magazines, serial publications, photobooks, and exhibitions, there is currently no in-depth study that allows for a global understanding. Therefore, we want to pursue this seminar that aims to define this notion while encompassing all of its complexity.

Since the 19th century, photography and architecture have maintained a special relationship. The subject content of the world’s first photograph, Nicephore Niepce, View from the Window at Le Gras, 1827, which was taken in France, was architecture thanks to the intrinsic quality of immobility of the built structure that corresponded to the long pause necessary to take a photo in those times. In the case of Japan, photographic techniques and the Western concept of architecture were simultaneously adapted when the country reopened. Yet contrary to what happened in the West, in Japan photography did not suffer from a battle with fine arts – indeed fine arts were also imported into Japan at the that time—allowing photography to be embraced by Japanese as soon as it arrived. Photography quickly became considered a modern medium perfectly suited to record new architecture— a modern means of representation for a modern subject. Moreover, since the Japanese word shashin means “copy of reality”, photography was soon seen as a practical tool for informing Tokyo’s elite about the evolution of construction or the damage caused to the built environment by natural disasters or conflicts in remote territories, as well as for recording heritage treasures scattered throughout the country. It was also a popular tool for companies to keep track of the progress of their projects and to showcase them once they were completed. Furthermore, in the 20th century, when photography entered the realm of the arts, symbolic, imagined, or utopian representations were added to documented representations of the built environment.

You will find below examples of thematic of interest for this seminar. However, this is not an exhaustive list and others subjects are also welcome:

  • monographs of architectural photographers
  • photographs of an architect's works
  • architects becoming photographers
  • a photographic series or a photobook by an artist in which the built environment plays a direct or indirect role
  • the use of photographs in an architectural magazine such as GA (Global Architecture)
  • architectural photography journals, such as the Architectural Photography Bulletin (『建築写真時報』kenchiku shashin jihō) 1912-14, or Architectural Photography (『建築写真類聚』kenchiku shashin ruijū), 1915-1943
  • corporate photographic collections
  • museum or library photographic collection
  • Photographic Missions
  • architectural photography as a metaphor of the human being or of society
  • history of the Japan Architectural Photographers Society (JAPS) 日本建築写真家協会 (1979-)
  • media coverage of Japanese architecture through photographs published in architecture magazines such as GA (Global Architecture)
  • comparison between the Japan Architectural Photographers Society (JAPS) founded in 1979 and the Architectural Photographic Association founded in 1857 and/or the Société internationale de photographie d’architecture founded in 1864
  • serial publications, such as Photographs of Famous Architectures of Japan (『日本名建築写真選集』Nihon mei-kenchiku shashin senshū), 1992-93, ed. Shinchōsha
  • training in architectural photography at Japanese schools and universities.

Three sessions are planned:

  • April 2024
  • June 2024
  • February 2025

The sessions are scheduled to be held online, but if several participants in the same session are located in Tokyo, Kyoto, or Paris, we may propose a hybrid format (to be confirmed). Sessions will be held on a Friday or Saturday morning (French time zone) / Friday or Saturday afternoon (Japanese time zone)

Submission guidelines

We invite you to send your proposals of 1 000 characters with a short biography (300 characters) and a short bibliography

before March 7, 2024

to cecilelaly@gmail.com AND japarchi@gmail.com

Please specify the dates of the sessions in which you wish to speak, as well as the city you will be located at the time of those sessions.

Scientific direction

  • Sylvie BROSSEAU, architect-researcher, Professor at Waseda University (Tokyo)
  • Catherine GROUT, Professor of esthetics (HDR) at Lille National School of Architecture and Landscape

Scientific committee

  • ABE-KUDO Junko 阿部順子, architect, Associate Professor, Sugiyama Jogakuen University (Nagoya)
  • Marie AUGENDRE, geographer, University Lecturer, Lumière Lyon 2  University
  • Fabienne DUTEIL-OGATA, anthropologiste, University Lecturer, Bordeaux Montaigne University
  • Nicolas FIÉVÉ, architect, Director of Studies at EPHE (Paris)
  • Andrea FLORES-URUSHIMA, urbanist, Associate Professor, Kyoto University
  • Cecile LALY, visual culture, Specially Appointed Lecturer, university of Kyoto Seika
  • MATSUGI Hiromi, art historian, Assistant Professor, International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kyoto)
  • MATSUMOTO Yutaka 松本裕, architect, Associate Professor, Ōsaka Sangyō University
  • OKAI Yuka 岡井有佳, urbanist, Associate Professor, Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto)
  • SENDAI Shōichirōô 千代章一郎, architect, Professor, Shimane University
  • Manuel TARDITS, architect, Professor, Meiji University (Tokyo)

Event attendance modalities

Hybrid event (on site and online)


Date(s)

  • Thursday, March 07, 2024

Keywords

  • architecture, Japon, photographie, magazine d'architecture

Contact(s)

  • Catherine Grout
    courriel : c-grout [at] lille [dot] archi [dot] fr

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Catherine Grout
    courriel : c-grout [at] lille [dot] archi [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Architectural photography », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, February 07, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/vrnf

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