The idea behind The Artist Gallery is to be a showcase that exposes the talent of photographers from all over the world. Today we bring you the story, motivation and thoughs of our best Architecture Photographers. These three photographers won the 2023 edition of our Architecture photo contest.
SEAN WOLANYK
Hello! My name is Sean Wolanyk and I am a Japanese Canadian studying architecture in Montreal, but I am currently living in Venice, Italy, on an exchange at an Italian architecture school. Living and studying here has allowed me to pursue two of my biggest passions in life: traveling and photography. Both of these were sparked from a young age, with my parents bringing me to amazing places as soon as I could walk and with them giving me my first camera soon thereafter. For most of my life, I had been using small point and shoot cameras that my parents would get me for birthdays, with each being a small upgrade from the last. I especially loved to take photos of all the new places I visited as a way to document my adventures. At 17, I bought my first DSLR and tested it out on a trip across the Adriatic Sea and this started my use of photography not just as a means of exploration, but as an artform.
Being an architecture student and thus being quite interested in this field, architectural photography has been my main focus, although I would like to try to capture people more. I use photography now to help enhance my designs in architecture school, using it as a tool for architectural expression from development to my final drawings. This could be from capturing the project site to making collages with my own photographs. Even when I am not working on a design, I still love to capture how people interact with the built environment. How are locals using a space? How big or small are people compared to a structure? Is a building deteriorating from its daily use? By always being on the lookout for such moments, I feel that my understanding of how to build spaces is always growing.
From a less professional point of view, I also love taking photos just to share things I love in the world around me. From teenagers using tourist attractions as skateparks to intricate patterns in man made spaces, capturing them allows me to share these beautiful moments with others.
If you want to find more of my work, you can visit my instagram @swollanick where I will be much more active in the coming months and will hopefully start a shop to sell prints!
GEORGE AIVALIS
My name is George Aivalis, I studied Business Administration and have a master's degree in Finance. I work as a Risk manager in a bank.
My first contact with photography was in 1989 when my parents brought me a used Nikon. Three years later I decided to go to a photography school. When I asked my father to finance the school, my mother threatened him with divorce as she was afraid that I would leave my basic studies. I finally went to photography school and my parents are still together!!
The days of the darkroom and the glamor they held have passed with the advancement of technology and from the Nikon FM2 I moved on to the Nikon d7000, then the D750 and then the D810.
Initially I was involved in landscape photography, a genre that still excites me. I often wonder if landscape photography is the reason or the pretext for contact with nature and the sense of freedom it gives.
At the opposite pole to landscape photography, I am excited by cityscape photography, as the environment in modern megacities is constantly changing, it becomes postmodern and futuristic, it creates giants of steel and glass that make people look small and insignificant, it fills the streets with night lights and shadows by day. What particularly fascinates me is the contrast between color landscape long exposure photography and black and white cityscape or architectural long exposure photography. With long exposure photography, along with the other dimensions, the fourth dimension, time, appears and enters the frame.
Nature with color gives the feeling of liveliness, freedom and relaxation, contact with basic human principles and pursuits, in contrast to the strict black and white image of the urban landscape that sets boundaries and frames, defines lines and shapes, but declares the future of human coexistence.
My goal in the first phase is to do a solo exhibition where I present this contrast I described. To see more about my work please visit my flickr profile here!
PIERRE LECCIA
Photographer then freelance graphic designer for over 10 years, Pierra Leccia now uses images for more personal purposes.
After a brief stint at the Hans Lucas press agency, he preferred to move towards an author's photographic approach based on the idea of the ordinary. Photographing everyday life, the environment that surrounds us, in urban areas or in nature, conveys his line of thought. His approach is to reveal this daily life that we only see for its utilitarian and not aesthetic value, and in fact without emotion. With a minimalist approach, he questions these environments that are most often intended for us.
To know more about his work you can visit his webpage, Instagram or Behance profile:
Website: https://pierreleccia.com/
Instagram: @pierrelecciaphoto
Behance: https://www.behance.net/pierreleccia
Now you know more about Sean, George and Pierre! If you want to know more about all the other photographers that were awaerded with a Honorable Mention click here!
And remember that all the time we are running different photography contests, in this link you can see all the active ones.
Thank you for introducing the Winners. Excellent idea, helping all to learn something new.