by Tim Hayduk
The Center for Architecture’s Education Department kicked off its fall Teen Workshop series with a new offering, Architectural Photography. The Teen Workshop series introduces high school students to a broad range of skills and practices within the realm of architecture. Past offerings include workshops on sustainability, architectural drawing, model making, neighborhood planning, and new architecture in SoHo, among others.
For the new workshop, the Center for Architecture teamed up with veteran architectural photographer Richard Schulman, who has photographed Pritzker Prize-winning architects and their work from around the globe. The workshop began with a morning spent at the Center for Architecture, where students responded to a selection of architectural photographs from publicly accessible collections ranging from The New York Public Library and The Museum of the City of New York to the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) collection from the library of Congress. Schulman also shared several of his photographs. Students were introduced to the tilt-shift photography technique, a mainstay of traditional film-based architectural photography. With powerful digital editing tools in the palms of their hands, using their mobile phones, students experimented with various editing tools and were asked to take a “raw” photograph, then duplicate and manipulate it to see how digital technology could enhance their image.
For the afternoon, students headed to the Modulightor Building on the Upper West Side, where Kelvin Dickinson, President of the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, provided insightful background into the life and work of Paul Rudolph. Dickinson described many of the design strategies Rudolph incorporated into this unique mixed-use building. Students had countless lenses with which to photograph the building’s interior, which is filled with nooks and crannies, collected objects, plants which blur the line between indoors and outdoors, and dramatic stairways. After taking photos, students shared their favorite raw and manipulated images. Schulman, Dickinson, and Lead Design Educator Tim Hayduk provided feedback as students discussed the process of shooting and editing their images.
The Center for Architecture received positive feedback from students, who said, “I really liked how we got to really explore all of the different parts of the building and see from many perspectives.” Others called the visit to Modulightor “fun and inspirational.”
Our winter/spring offerings will include a reprisal of the SoHo and Architectural Photography workshops, and two new programs focusing on the Center for Architecture’s Generation Proxima: Emerging Environmental Practices in Portuguese Architecture exhibition and Historic Preservation.