Architecture Photography –
100 Remarkable Examples from Around the World

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Posted in Photography Articles
Text and Images by Andrew Prokos

In my previous articles covering night photography and abstract photography, I presented fifty examples of photographs captured in New York, London, Dubai, and other locations. In this article I present one hundred extraordinary examples of architecture photography taken over the span of my twenty-plus year career as a fine art and architectural photographer. The examples below are taken from work that I captured for commercial architectural clients and ‘self-assigned’ for my own fine art portfolio. These architectural images span these six broad categories:

1. Photography of architectural interiors
2. Photography of achitectural exteriors + facades
3. Photography of architectural details
4. Black and white architecture photography
5. Historic architecture photography
6. Abstract and conceptual architecture photography

Read on below to explore each genre of architecture photography, from wide views of contemporary and historic buildings, to close-up architectural details and my more conceptual series which often employ the use of architectural images to explore concepts such as perception and temporality.

Photography of Architectural Interiors

Capturing architectural interiors is always a challenge. The balance between ambient light and lighting introduced to balance the scene is crucial. I try always to work with existing ambient light if possible. I will often capture the same space at different times of day, and for commercial interior shoots it is important to scout the location in advance and see how the light changes over the course of the day. I very often will schedule my locations according to the movement of the sun and the best ambient light conditions. It isn’t always easy, and if I find that the light is not what I had hoped I will make a snap decision to return to that location or proceed. One important consideration when shooting architectural interiors is what you leave out, in other words, the negative space. The sense of space and the use of open space is critical to architectural design, and it is equally critical to architectural photography. Incorporating people into the scene provides the scale and the soaring sense of space which is critical to capturing modern architecture.

Photography of Architectural Exteriors + Facades

Architectural exteriors can be just as demanding as interiors, but a different set of issues arise. During the day the positioning of the sun is crucial, as it will decide whether the facade is fully illuminated or harsh shadows cut through the middle of the scene. Shooting a backlit building isn’t optimal, although it is necessary if there are no other options…this tends to be the case in large cities with high-rise buildings. Modern buildings are often sheathed in glass which acts as a mirror when the facade is fully illuminated by the sun. In my shoots of Penn 2 in Manhattan this was the case, and I revisited the same locations several times to capture different versions of the scene.

In a dense urban environment like New York there are a lot of factors at play, and often construction work will be blocking the precise location you had hoped for, or in the case of Penn Plaza, a sea of pedestrians that are almost impossible to control. Having to clear all of the traffic from the front of a high-rise in New York City for a photo shoot is an almost suicidal task, but I have done it…just be prepared to receive a lot of verbal abuse from the drivers who are used to idling in front of the building all the time waiting for the pampered clients who don’t intend to walk to the end of the block to get into the car. Ahh, the things I have had to do! I very much prefer shooting at night for this reason…the flow of people is easier to control.

Photography of Architectural Details + Close Up Views

Architectural details often play second fiddle (or third) to interiors and exteriors, but they add context and interest to any architectural photo shoot. I personally always capture details and close up views of the buildings I shoot, whether or not the client asks for it or not. I have never had one client refuse them. Architectural details feature a building’s construction, its bones, and also what gives the building character and defines the building’s style. They are the opposite of interiors in that with interiors the negative space is a necessary component of successful composition, whereas with details I aim to fill the entire frame with those extraordinary curves and geometric patterns.

Black and White Architecture Photography

Capturing architecture in black and white firmly places the genre in the real of fine art. There is very little commercial use of black and white architectural images since architects generally need the photos they commission to depict their buildings as true to life as possible. However, over the course of my now 20+ year career, black and white architectural photographs have outsold color architecture photographs as framed limited edition prints by perhaps 60%/40% (that is rough estimation). More photography collectors choose to invest in black and white prints of this particular genre, at least where my own (expansive) archive is concerned.

Black and white is where the creativity and personal vision of the photographer emerges…it’s not about faithfully depicting the intent of the architect anymore, but rather about using the architectural elements to reach the onlooker on another level. I have included here a range of black and white architecture photos pulled from all of the other types presented in this article: interiors, exteriors, facades, close up views, and historic buildings.

Photography of Historic Architecture

Over the past twenty or so years that I have been shooting professionally I have amassed a considerable archive relating to photography of historic buildings. I profess that contemporary architecture really gets my juices flowing in terms of diving in and finding new ways of using the building’s design to my own advantage from a fine art perspective. But the sheer spectacle of much historic architecture is irresistible for me too. I mean, these are buildings which could not be built today. They are the product of another era, another economic system, and another societal organization. We should pay homage to them as they elevate our quality of life immensely, even if we don’t really think about it on a day to day basis. Shooting historic architecture is a way of immersing yourself in another culture and losing your sense of chronology. Many of these buildings are unsurpassed works of art…the lacework of Gothic cathedrals, the astonishing precision of the Parthenon, elegant bygone eras with their own distinct styles. It is worthwhile to stop and admire them, and to capture them from our own entirely modern artistic perspective.

Abstract & Conceptual Architecture Photography

In this final category of architecture photography, I present examples of my more conceptual and abstract work which incorporates architectural elements. This is the kind of imagery I create as self-assigned creative challenges. I use these challenges to keep myself engaged in photography, as a steady diet of the same types of work is often the quickest path to becoming bored and disconnecting from your creative abilities. Taken to the furthest possible end, as in my series Metropolis Abstracted, the original architectural elements almost vanish completely and the composition becomes something new and entirely different. I continued with this series entirely because of the enigmatic nature of the images. Not only did I find them fascinating to discover as I worked with the images, the response from onlookers at exhibitions has sometimes been far more interesting than I ever could have imagined when I started the series during the pandemic in 2020.

My series Gehry’s Children was really my first foray into abstraction by isolating forms and textures from the work of architect Frank Gehry. My series Inverted UAE also leaned heavily on architectural elements and geometric repetition, but was placed firmly in the realm of the surreal through the use of negative-image hypercolor. I wanted to create a kind of alternate futuristic world, which was achieved through focus on architecture which already seemed surreal to me to begin with, but once removed via the use of inverted colors. Inverted UAE was sheer play time for me. I had come back home from a long trip to the UAE at the end of 2019 and I started on this series. It was the product of much experimentation with the colors. Like a dog with a bone, once I committed to the concept I ran with it. My series Archistracts and Multiplicity were arrived at through a similar process of rigorous experimentation. Again, this is supposed to be the fun part. I was at the point in my career where I had won enough awards, had reaped the benefit of years of high-end commercial shoots and sales of large-scale artwork. It was becoming more important to reconnect to my creative side and jolt myself into a new creative mindset.

Photography from the series Archistracts

Photography from the series Inverted

Photography from the series Multiplicity

Architectural Abstractions + Reflections

Architecture Photography as Fine Art Prints

Below are examples of architecture photography sold as fine art prints to a wide range of clients, including architectural and interior design firms, corporate art collections, and private collectors of limited edition photographs across the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Continental Europe. Following below the images is a set of videos showing the artwork in detail. These examples illustrate how the resourceful photographer can both shoot for a living and do quite well in the realm of fine art as well. The barriers between the two realms have broken down, and these days many galleries are presenting the historic archives of some of the great architectural photographers as fine art and mounting exhibitions of their work.

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