Iwan Baan: Recent Works – Contemporary Architectural Photographs

Iwan Baan: Recent Works – Contemporary Architectural Photographs showcases recent architectural photography by the young and increasingly influential Dutch photographer Iwan Baan. He has pioneered a 3D interactive photographic technique featuring finished buildings and scale models as well as fulfilling commissions by leading international architects to photograph a wide range of the world’s most exciting contemporary architecture. For the last three years Baan has documented the construction of OMA’s China Central Television (CCTV) building, alongside Herzog & de Meuron’s Olympic Stadium and other 2008 Olympic projects in Beijing.

This first solo exhibition dedicated to Baan’s work highlights the rich and idiosyncratic nature of his oeuvre, with an emphasis on recent Asian assignments. Based at any given time in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Beijing or New York, Baan’s modus operandi redefines the traditionally static relationship between the architectural photographer and his subject (the immovable building, and the equally unmoving photographer behind the ground glass screen of a 5x4 plate camera) with an approach borrowed more from reportage photography – transient, animated, fast-paced. The resulting unique documentary quality of his architectural photographs, which entertain as much as they mesmerise, also resonates with the extraordinary qualities of a wide range of recent buildings. His perspective on recent works by OMA, SANAA, Steven Holl, Sou Fujimoto, Toyo Ito, Zaha Hadid, Michael Maltzan and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, a number of which feature in this show, has given scope for new interpretations. Baan’s photographs are published and collected internationally. He is a regular contributor to Domus and Abitare, and his work frequently features in The New Yorker, New York Times, TIME magazine, A+U, ICON, MARK and FRAME. See also AA's lecture "Iwan Baan and visitors: Architectural Photography in Focus". Architectural Association Inc