Architecture Photography
2501 Polk Street, Houston, Texas, 77003
Houston Lighting & Power Co. began in 1882 and was the sole power and utility company servicing Houston for almost a century. After several sales and renames, in 2002 it was split into Reliant Energy, Texas Genco, and CenterPoint Energy. The sign across the facade was originally outlined in neon.
Eller Wagon Works–Pittsburgh Plate Glass Building - 101 Crawford Street. This three story warehouse was built in the Warehouse District of Houston in 1909 by Frank Eller in order to manufacture horse-drawn wagons. Train tracks lay underneath the street on Crawford. Aquired by Pittsburgh Plate Glass in 1920, an addition was added by Alfred C. Finn. In 2004 it was renovated and turned into lofts and art studios.
““The Eller Wagon Works-Pittsburgh Plate Glass Building is an historic three-story brick warehouse building in Houston’s Warehouse District south of Buffalo Bayou east of Main Street. The Eller Wagon Works Building, located at the corner of Crawford and Commerce, was constructed in 1909 to manufacture horse-drawn wagons just as the automobile industry was getting under way. In 1920, Pittsburgh Plate Glass acquired the building and added a additional structure designed by Alfred C. Finn to the south side of the original Wagon Works building.””
Sean was interviewed by the Hines College of Architecture and Design. To read the full interview click here.
Seine Bight, Placencia, and Monkey River, Belize (2022)
I had the pleasure of working with Brittany Utting and Daniel Jacobs of HOME-OFFICE on HOUSTON-VARIATIONS. In 2022, Brittany and Daniel were winners of the RDA Houston Design Research Grant for this project. The project explores typological adaptations to Houston’s climatic and economic forms.
Below are some of the photographs I took for them. To learn more about the project, visit Home-Office’s website here.
Titan Design Center designed by Arc Three Studio
Midtown Terrace Suites photographed for Rice Design Alliance. See the article on Rice Design Alliance’s website.
Also known as the LBJ Presidential Library, it was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and R. Max Brooks of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and opened in 1971.
I had the opportunity to photograph the new Museum of Fine Arts Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for Josef Gardner/Permasteelisa : once during its construction in September of 2019 and again after completion in April of 2021.
The Houston Skyline seen from Sawyer Yards
My masters project while at the UH College of Architecture and Design was a quasi-scientific study on light and its effects on the way we see architecture. At the beginning of the fall semester all of the architecture graduate students were gathered into one studio and separated into groups with separate instructors advising each. My instructor had a background in the fine arts and simultaneously received a BA in Fine Arts, Art History, and Architecture from Rice University. As a result, I had a well of knowledge I could continue to return to throughout the year. Initially influenced by Bernd and Hilla Becher and their photographic series on typologies (framework houses, water towers, industrial buildings) I wanted to photograph a series of commonplace structures while also attempting to document changing light conditions.
I first chose a long list of post offices as subjects and started the task of photographing each one 3 times a day: Morning, Noon, and late Afternoon. I ran into several problems as I was doing this. The first problem was that post offices, for the most part, are boring and flat. They are often low one-story rectangular structures spread out in large parking lots. Many of them are suffering because of email and online payments now being the norm and as a result, have started running into maintenance issues. Dirty cracked broken parking lots and stained facades were a common occurrence. Another problem I had with post offices was that they were usually in or near residential areas and only closed one day a week on Sunday. This meant I could really only photograph them fully on Sundays, unless I wanted a constantly shifting foreground of cars in the parking lot. In order to take photos from the exact same spot each time I had to outline my tripod legs in chalk on the ground. Returning 3 different times throughout the day was difficult if there were cars in the parking lot parked on top of my chalk marks. During our mid semester review, most of the instructors shared similar opinions on post offices and urged me to find a new subject.
Claude Monet
Rouen Cathedral Series 1892-1893
Stills from Andy Warhol’s film Empire 1964
Ed Ruscha
Every Building on the Sunset Strip 1966
For the changing light aspect of my project, I was inspired by Monet’s Rouen Cathedral series, particularly in the way it expressed how light changes throughout the day/year and its effects. I was also influenced by Andy Warhol’s film Empire, even though I found it somewhat tedious, the sentiment rang true to my project. Towards the end of the fall semester I discovered Ed Ruscha’s Every Building on the Sunset Strip and was inspired yet again. I decided then that the final presentation for my series would be a book with accordion-style pull-out pages for each building/subject. This would allow the reader to view the images one by one while flipping through the pages and also, each series as a whole, if the accordion-pages are pulled out. My new subjects would be ubiquitous Houston buildings located downtown, buildings that promote regional identity but are often overlooked. This time, I started out by photographing each building 4 times a day (the 4th being an image displaying the lack of natural light and presence of artificial light). While taking wide angle photos with my 24mm t/s lens I would also take a “zoomed-in” detail shot of the façade with my 70mm lens. When piecing together the series with my advisor, we came to the conclusion that the close up “detail” shots were much more graphically interesting and better displayed the intention of my project.
As I began to hone in and photograph the rest of the series of the project, I made a set of rules to follow in order to maintain consistency throughout the project.
1. Full clear sunny days only
If shadows fall on subjects, it should be because of the suns position or their surroundings – not inconsistent weather.
2. Time-frame between images should be consistent and orderly
Morning ~10am, Noon ~12:30, Afternoon ~4:30, Night ~8
3. Direct front facing one-point perspective compositions
To maintain compositional consistency
4. Compose for square format
Only square crops used for compositions to maintain consistency and reference building blocks, modules, tiles, fragments, etc.
Originally, the series consisted of a list of twelve buildings. After the school shut down because of Covid-19 and Houston issued stay at home orders, I had to condense my list and finish the project with seven. Even though the series was cut short, I am happy with the results and would like to continue it (possibly in a different city/subjects) one day. I learned a lot from this project. I found the process of going out and experimenting before fully fleshing out the specific details of the project at the start to be was extremely helpful. In the beginning of a project when there are still a lot of unknown factors, simply going out and testing your ideas is important. Rarely does a project stay the same from beginning to end. Looking back, I can say that, learning how to identify problems and adjusting your project accordingly will lead to a more fully developed and rewarding final result.
Open every Wednesday through June 26th
33-story high-rise condo in Houston's Inner Loop
The moon rising next to One Shell Plaza. Two shots stitched together, taken from the steps of City Hall.
By Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1971
After seeing James Turrell’s Skyspace multiple times while walking around Rice’s campus I decided to photograph it. I had to visit it twice because the first time I went the light show did not go off (Tuesday’s it doesn’t do it). Check out some of his other work on his website here: http://jamesturrell.com/
Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 1963.
