Kenneth Caldwell, Letters [p. 62], Architecture California, 14. no. 2, November 1992, p. 62
[p. 63] To the Editor,
As someone who works with archtectural photographs every day, I took special interest in the May issue. I have reread the articles by Esther McCoy, Craig Hodgetts, and Grant Medford because I found links between them that were not apparent on first reading.
I turned to Esther McCoy's piece first because her stories, which are so direct, so clear, reveal more layers when they are reread. In her funny tale, one many of us have experienced, she establishes the basis for the truth/untruth discussion that can be found throughout this issue. By now, most sophisticated clients understand that architectural photographs are similar to artists' renderings; a building is seen in its best light. It is the good glimpse, not the whole story.
How architectural photography moves forward, out of the invented, or styled, lies in what Hodgetts calls "the political, or the capitalistic." Whoever pays owns the refocused truth. Some [p. 63] possibilities for dialogue about this can be found in Grant Medford's article and more importantly, in his own work. He is quite precise about the distinction between the commissioned work and what he calls his "own photographs." I'm not sure that many of the architects who hire him know about his other work, nor am I sure how the two kinds of work influence each other. But what he is doing-taking photographs of buildings as he sees them, without commission-is a political act. Working outside of the capitalistic/owner model, both Medford (and Abbott) turn away from what Hodgetts calls the photograph's narrative and return to the realm of the photographer's or artist's narrative. The choice to record on one's own, without a capital end in mind-whether with a single image or with moving images, as Hodgetts suggests-will be real movement. I hope more archittectural photographers step outside the constraints of the commission and that Architecture California devotes a future issue to those images, those truths.
Kenneth Caldwell, Berkeley
(See Architecture California)