Contemporary Architecture Portfolio: Jacobsen Arquitetura Case Study

Abstract

Photography is historically used to display architectural works to distant audience. Digital media, mainly the Internet, have expanded the distribution of images, especially through the websites of architecture offices, which found a handy tool for the dissemination of its portfolio. The perception of the resulting image from the photographic registration technique varies depending on the means it is presented, either digital or analogical. This finding led the investigation presented in this article: How architecture design companies present photographic images to promote their work through electronic portfolios? Is there any strategy that prevails? These questions inspired a research that analyses the architectural photographs digitally presented by Brazilian contemporary architecture offices. The goal is to build a diagnosis of the use of photography on their website by identifying recurrent strategies and techniques. This article presents the examination of photographic images displayed in the Jacobsen Architecture office site, which is relevant in the contemporary Brazilian scene. Procedures consisted of bibliographical and documentary researches, followed by analysis. The literature was addressed to the architectural photography. The documentary research explored all the photographs available on the office's website, totalling 418. It was established 25 objective parameters, which were recognized in each image, and the data were tabulated. The operation of the entire universe of data allowed the statistical and comparative analysis. The result identifies the most common practices and the nature of the photographic image from that office.