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from apertures to advocacy


From Habitat magazine - issue 23

Photographer Patrick Reynolds finds his voice after years of capturing architecture on film.

Patrick Reynolds

After years of silently documenting leadingedge architecture and interiors, photographer Patrick Reynolds has developed a voice. Quite a bolshy one.

He's known as our original architectural photographer, arriving on the scene at a time when strong growth in local architectural practices coincided with the emergence of a robust magazine and book industry. Now he's also known as an outspoken advocate for well-designed cities, and a member of Urban Auckland, a society which monitors and comments on the quality of urban and architectural design in Auckland.

Says Patrick: "As humans we see value in being close to each other. Cities succeed when they are compact, not sprawling – where there are diverse communities, where you can age in place and not have to take to the motorways to get everywhere."

His people-centric ideas for our built environment also influence his photographic style. "I'm doing less of the heroic, monumental style of architectural photography and have become more interested in the social aspects. Literally, I have more people in my shots."

Home exterior

He says he is sensitive to colour, and a lover of raw materials, texture and dark shades… "although I do a good line in purple clothes."

He spends some of his working day in 'the cave', a brooding studio cum living space at the back of the villa he shares with partner Maria and their three grown children.

As the son of two architects and with a passion for photography, it's no surprise Patrick ended up doing what he does. "I grew up in a house full of Italian and German architecture magazines. I couldn't read them so I looked at the pictures.

Photographing the built environment was a natural thing to do, a way of interacting with it, and marking the changes. I was lucky to be able to specialise – architecture was a language I could speak."

With his views on not letting our cities sprawl (he gives a talk called 'Seductive Congestion'), it's no surprise that Patrick is a fan of the small living movement. "We've built these vast houses to cater for what we think is a good lifestyle with jet skis, big TVs and 10 bathrooms but small and perfectly formed can be so much better."

For now, he continues to agitate and to photograph. He's also working on a follow-up book to Big House, Small House (published 2012) with writer John Walsh due for release next year.

And for someone with a life's work and passion for architectural photography, he has this fairly down-to-earth viewpoint: "The camera is fairly poor at translating spatial volume to its two dimensions, not much good at describing a building's programme, and no use at all at giving the temperature, smell, sound, or feel of being there. In truth, photography is a beguiling but deceptive road to architecture."

Patrick and a recent favourite shot of his, of a design by Herbst Architects.

portrait: Jesse Carson


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