ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a close reading of two sets of photographs of a house designed by French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. Taken by Philippe Ruault and Hisao Suzuki, they were published in architectural journals in 2001 and 2017, respectively. With reference to theories of representation within the work of art historian Norman Bryson and philosopher Louis Marin, this chapter reveals the role of compositional devices and reflexive imaging strategies that diversify from the generic norms of architectural photography and its system of exclusions, which have dominated the idiom from the modern period. Highlighting the photographers’ different approaches to the recording of the material traces of everyday life within the building and the subsequent intervention of journal editors within this record, the chapter describes how the published architectural photograph can manifest a complex and contested discourse of architectural representation, containing conflicting conceptions of architectural authorship and accomplishment. Images by Ruault and Suzuki are explored as examples through which to challenge the stereotypical nature of architectural photography and its status as a necessarily monolithic mode of architectural imaging, opening up the possibility of a reception of the architectural photograph beyond its systemic function as mediatized spectacle.
