The lifespan of a building

Australian-born Rory Gardiner is one of the most in demand contemporary architectural photographers internationally, renowned for his dreamlike aesthetic. He’s frequently commissioned by magazines, architectural firms and cultural institutions to photograph major new buildings – and remarkably, he mainly captures his epochal images with traditional analog film.

Gardiner’s practice began early: his father, who is an architect, nurtured his deep love of architecture and photography, and encouraged him to pursue his passion for photography at RMIT University. Soon after graduating Gardiner relocated to London for a decade-long immersion in its lively and highly competitive creative scene. He now operates twin bases in London and Melbourne, and frequently travels to work with prominent architects across Europe, Australasia, the Americas and Asia.

His images interrogate architectural vernaculars, blending the lines between the structure of the landscape, the objects populating the space and architectural forms to create a feeling of being present on the site.

Powerhouse commissioned Gardiner to create a series of images of the new state of the art 10,000m2 expansion collection storage, conservation and research facility at Castle Hill as it nears completion.

Powerhouse Castle Hill was designed by Lahznimmo Architects to foreground the natural environment and history of the site, which previously contained many varieties of Eucalyptus trees used for Eucalyptus oil experiments and distillation in the early days of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Powerhouse artistic associate Zan Wimberley spoke with Gardiner about the commission, Powerhouse Castle Hill , his practice and the future of architectural photography.

Zan Wimberley What were your thoughts about photographing the new building at Castle Hill?

Rory Gardiner I don't think I can remember a building I’ve shot that seamlessly blends into the sky and the environment while still having this shimmering kind of presence. And I think it's a really subtle way to use materiality: the materiality renders it looking quite incredible in this subtle way at all times of the day.

The building is gentle enough to not take up all the presence. So it gives emphasis to what's around it as well. In that way, it allows the compositional weight to fall away from the building, which then gives you this negative space in this big area of clutter, having these huge facades that are so clean, which is quite rare. It's a joy to photograph so much negative space while photographing a structure.

ZW It was a really particular moment that you came to shoot. Rather than this perfect moment that architectural photography usually occurs, we did the photography while the trades were still working and the site was a few weeks away from completion. You’ve said you prefer these ‘before’ and ‘after’ moments when photographing architecture, why is that?

RG I'm trying to expand my understanding of temporality in architectural photography. I think about this a lot: if we capture the building in that perfect moment, I don’t think we're really being honest. I don't think we're bringing a level of sophistication to how we talk about architecture and how we present it.

It's not that I particularly take issue with that perfect moment, but I do take issue with it being the only representation of the building. I think the architectural community, which I consider photographers part of, could be thinking more about the lifespan of the building and what that looks like.

You have this crossover period where there's trades, the people who have been constructing the building and the people responsible for the building's existence, and then there's traces of the people who are actually going to use it.

There's this tension between the past and the future you're not going to see if the building is perfectly clean and ready. In a way, it's truer to the original theories around photography about capturing moments and preservation of time, whereas if we just want to present a perfectly clean building, I think we can do that through renders.

ZW Do you think the role of photography in architecture is shifting because of renders and the emergence of AI imaging technology?

RG I think there'll be a big hunger to document things that are real and to remind people of reality. We're already seeing it in advertising photography a bit as a reaction to all the rendering stuff in the last few years.

We’ve had so many iterations over the past two decades where now rendering works and we can retouch our images. Everyone can do it themselves. And now they can put a filter to make it look like film. I can't even tell.

If you think about that change in the 1990s, where if an architect built a building and you turned up on the day and there was a car out the front or whatever, or you know, piles of dirt got dumped in front of you as they did for us in this (Castle Hill) shoot, you have no option to remove it. That was very recent. I think that finite ability that was there in the 1990s was emancipating, because you couldn't retouch stuff. But maybe that’s because I've got so many options available.

The Lifespan of a Building is a Powerhouse Image commission. Conceived and directed by Artistic Associate Zan Wimberley.