Architecture and aesthetics
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New chimneys, Kertész AndréPhoto (C) Ministère de la Culture - Médiathèque du Patrimoine, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / André Kertész. (C) RMN-Grand Palais - Gestion droit d'auteur.
In 1826, Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce took the first photograph in history, “View from the Window at Le Gras”. This first “shot” is a view from his Burgundy home. From the moment photographs were invented, architecture represented an ideal subject.
The first photographic processes required a long exposure, which is why the immobility of buildings allowed shots to be taken without the effect of any incongruous movement. Initially used for descriptive and documentary purposes, in particular the French Mission Héliographique (Heliographic Mission) of 1851, architectural photography quickly broke away from these early functions.
Throughout the 20th century, numerous photographers, such as André Kertész, Albert Renger-Patzsh, Germaine Krull and Daniel Boudinet, developed a more personal and aesthetics-based approach to the architectural model. With its play on the light and graphic quality of buildings, architectural photography was reinvented.
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