Dennis Gilbert - selected buildings

Dennis Gilbert has been photographing buildings since 1980. After graduating as an engineer in South Africa, he travelled in South America and studied art in Los Angeles before moving to London in 1983.

In the recent past, he has worked on projects such as Kansai Airport in Japan, Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong, the German Parliament in Berlin, Reykjavik City Hall and High Court, and the 12 new Jubilee Line stations in London.

He is a partner in a London-based architectural picture library, which supplies pictures from many photographers to publishers worldwide.

Wingardh Sandell Sandberg Architects

Atrium Ericsson offices, London, UK

Walters and Cohen Architects

Stair Health Club, London, UK

Foster and Partners

German Parliament, Berlin, Germany

Studio Granda

Rekjavik City Hall, Reykjavik, Iceland

Ian Ritchie Architects
Concert Platform, London, UK

Herzog + de Meuron
Tate Modern, London, UK

Daniel Libeskind
Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany

Herzog + de Meuron
Tate Modern, London, UK

Foster and Partners
German Parliament, Berlin, Germany

David Chipperfield Architects
Dolce & Gabbana, Milano, Italy

John Pawson
Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong, China

Brian Housden Architect House
London, UK

Blauel Architects Offices
California, USA

Arne Jacobsen
Danish Embassy, London, UK

Foster and Partners
Canary Wharf Station, London, UK

Michael Hopkins and Partners
SAGA offices Folkestone, UK

Foster and Partners
Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong, China

Jeremy Dixon & Edward Jones
National Gallery Extension, London, UK

David Chipperfield Architects
Dolce & Gabbana, Milan, Italy

Wingardh Sandell Sandberg Architects
Atrium, Ericsson offices, London, UK

Photography and architecture are forever linked: to place a frame over a structure, which has been carefully composed in itself, and then to reduce three dimensions to two, could be a reckless act.

The result might bear little resemblance to the building, or convey none of the experience of it, or it may even describe the entire object in painful detail.

Although I am not expecting one picture to stand for a building, I am attempting to make each picture [even in a series] do the same thing: to carry information about the ideal of the building, as it seduces the eye. It is the balance between image and fact, that keeps the work alive. All known picture-making formulas can be applied, but there is no getting away from the many decisions that need to be taken for each picture.

There are an infinite number of places the camera can be placed: how objective or how opinionated can one make the picture? When the mechanics of photography don't distract, the photograph plays this balancing act to perfection. A fragment can suggest the whole and the picture can become a thing of beauty in itself.
Architectural photography is often considered cool and detached, but if it is to speak, there must be a controlled passion behind it.


Apparently Goethe once described architecture as frozen music: I expect the photograph to generate some heat ....... if one cannot be there in person.


/Dennis Gilbert

Website: www.dennisgilbert.com/
View Library: 
www.viewpictures.co.uk