Architectural Photography: People or No People?

A fundamental question for architectural photographers: To what extent should they include people in their photographic interpretations of architecture and design - people or no people?

This is by no means a new question. It’s been the subject of discussion and consideration among photographers and the consumers, users and publishers of architectural photography for decades.

In “Building with Light, The International History of Architectural Photography”, author Robert Elwall, in his discussion of the work of Dutch photographer Johan Van Der Keuken, writes that architect Herman Hertzberger “criticized conventional architectural photography for being ‘cut off from life and unpeopled’”.

Hertzberger, in the words of Elwall, “pleaded for photography to concentrate on the ‘habitable space between things…to where ordinary day to day lives are lead…’”. Elwall goes on to say that this “new...