Architectural Photo as a Visual Tool for Information Flow in the Architecture of the Interwar Period

Text: Ágnes Anna Sebestyén

From the very beginning, the documentation and mediation of visual information about individual buildings and the man-made environment has always been an important component of architectural photography. Architectural photography has been a significant means of both personal communication amongst architects, as well as architects and the public since the latter half of the 19th century. Architectural photographs published in large quantities in architectural periodicals, other publications and exhibitions entered public communication and were circulated as such, whilst today they are widely available and accessible primarily and most efficiently via internet-based platforms. Since the early 20th century on, thanks to the most recent developments in printing technology, architectural photos are spread and distributed with an unprecedented speed, especially via professional journals. However, our contemporaries have already pinpointed another significant aspect: architectural photography has evolved into a self-evident components in architectural mediation, whilst far from being a perfect equivalent of the translated reality.