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life

IA&B. Tell us about your new book Brasilia – Chandigarh. What instigated you to take on such a tangential inquiry into the two modernist cities?IB. With the upcoming celebration of Brasilia’s 50th anniversary in 2010, Lars Müller and I came up with the idea of making a book about Brazil’s futuristic capital. But we didn’t want to make yet another photo book about the architecture and just the buildings of Brasilia. Because of my nomadic life, we thought, why not combine it with another example of a new modernist city at the other end of the world? And that worked out really well.

IA&B. Your photographs have a unique quality of life. They are not sterile shots that architects usually like. They have human presence and interaction in them. Is this intentional? Why?IB. I star ted with documentar y photography. My first large project at Ar t School was documenting villagers in Bangladesh who were able to star t their own small businesses through micro-credits they received from the Grameen Bank. I photographed some small scale projects and the people who make their lives out of it. People have always been the subject of my work. Nowadays, I use architecture as a background in my work.

In conversat ion with Indian Architec t & Bui lder magazine,

Iwan B aan, architec tural photographer and rec ipient of Jul ius Shulman Pr ize, ta lks about his way of looking at things.

&architecture

let’s partner

IA&B. Being from an art background, how did your interest in architectural photography emerge? Do you use your camera to document or to express?IB. I never planned to be an architectural photographer. My career as an architectural photographer started by accident when I met Rem Koolhaas in 2005 and started working with him. I usually use my camera to express; I like to display how architecture and the built environment play it’s role in how people live. But in the past, I also used the camera to document. I have documented the construction process of the CCTV building in China and the National Stadium for a long time. It was very impressive to follow the construction of these projects in China, especially with the means, how these things are built in countries like China (but I imagine that you know how it is in India) with, at times, 10,000 people at work on the same project.

IA&B. You have worked in collaboration with many respected international firms like OMA, Herzog and de Meuron and your recent cover on MAXXI by Zaha Hadid was appreciated during the World Architecture Festival. Do you feel the pressure to base your work on their demands or you have creative freedom while documenting their projects?IB. I’m working independent. I’m not an architect, like most architecture photographers. People hire me because of my point of view and give me full freedom to work around their projects. I refuse to accept assignments where I am dictated to capture a building in a certain way. It’s a very intuitive way of documenting architecture and the role it plays in its context.

IA&B. Your personal projects focus on life with architecture as a backdrop. Is that your field of interest? How do you perceive architecture through your lens?IB. I use architecture to frame my images. I ’m par ticularly interested in the people and the builders around the architecture. I want to tel l a stor y with my pic tures and I want to show why something is being build at a cer tain place and what effect this has on the people involved.

IA&B. As a photographer, how much do you inter vene in your subject? How do you stay invisible during a shoot? How do you deal with attention?IB. As a documentar y photographer you’re always in the background. There’s no “direction” of what’s happening around it. I let real ity play their stories out in front of the architecture. It ’s a ver y intuit ive way of documenting space.

IA&B. You are not a traditional architectural photographer. How do people respond to your photographs as against sterile

building shots that they are used to see?IB. I think tradit ional architecture photographs merely ser ve a specif ic audience, but only few people understand what architecture is about. I bel ieve that a building becomes more interesting to a wider audience i f you tel l stories around the architecture, show where it ’s built and the relationship or jux taposit ion with the contex t.

IA&B. Can you share with us your most intriguing experience while photographing a space? Which is your favourite place to photograph?IB. My most favourite places are places where you can come back over and over again and where you always discover something new. One of my favourite projects is Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Librar y, where I ’ve been a number of t imes and ever y t ime I discover new things there. The same with the CCTV constructions in Beij ing, China, which I have been following for the last s ix years on a bi-monthly basis.

IA&B. You have travelled and stayed in India. Do you see yourself doing a personal project in India in the future? As a photographer, what has interested you in India?IB. Yes, India is one of my favourite countries. I spent a lot of t ime there in the past on documentar y projects on the countr y and people. The amazing colours, incredible people and l i fe in India fascinates me. Unfor tunately, there is not too much happening in architecture at the moment, which is my main interest; but any excuse to come back to India, and I ’ l l be there again. So i f you or your readers hear about any interesting project, don’t hesitate to contact me!

IA&B. What are you working on at present? Something for architects to look for ward to?IB. I ’m working on a number of exhibit ions. One just recently opened in Vil la Noail les, in Hyéres, France where I exhibit 52 images which I shot in 2010 during 52 weeks of travell ing. I ’m always abroad, always travell ing, so it was a nice diar y which came together there. Another book with Lars Müller and with the Benesse Foundation on the Setouchi Is lands in Japan. This foundation is building al l these museums and cultural spaces and is developing the islands to be cultural centre points in Japan, with the help of ar t ists and architects. I ’m also working on a book on Los Angeles, USA, with architect Michael Maltzan, that wil l be published this year with Hatje Canz.

To know more about Iwan Baan and his book Brasi l ia – Chandigarh, refer to the Book Review and Space Frames sections.

Dutch photographer Iwan Baan is known primarily for images that narrate the life and interactions that occur within architecture. Born in 1975, Iwan grew up outside Amsterdam, studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and worked in publishing and documentary photography in New York and Europe. Iwan took up the subject of architecture unexpectedly in 2005, when he proposed to Rem Koolhaas that he document a project by the architect’s firm OMA. Current and upcoming exhibitions include Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement at the Museum of Modern Art and Richard Neutra in Europe, which opened this May at the Marta Herford Museum in Germany and will travel to several other locations. Iwan’s work has also been included in exhibitions at the Architectural Association in London and the AIA New York Chapter. His book Brasilia – Chandigarh looks at life in two cities woven into modernity.