Photographer Timothy Soar explains why he is holding a series of free-to-attend workshops at different locations around the country for members of the Regenerative Architecture Index to hone their photography skills.
We are no longer documenting a stable idea of architecture. If architecture is changing, then the language used to represent it must also change. Not stylistically, but fundamentally. What does it mean to photograph something that is designed to evolve? How do you convey systems rather than surfaces, relationships rather than objects, duration rather than a single moment?
I’m holding a series of workshops for members of the Regenerative Architecture Index to explore how a more appropriate visual language might be constructed, one that is capable of holding complexity without reducing it. That might mean reconsidering how we frame the subject, it might mean paying closer attention to use, or to the life of the building beyond completion. Because within regenerative practice, representation is no longer neutral. The images you produce will shape how this work is understood, disseminated, and ultimately valued. They will influence whether it is read as a set of aesthetic gestures, or as a deeper, systemic shift in how architecture operates. That makes the question of how we photograph this work not just appropriate, but urgent.
We’ll look closely at this together. Analysing images not simply for their composition, but for their intent. Who are they speaking to? What assumptions do they carry? What narratives do they reinforce, or resist? From there, the focus turns back to your own work. How do you want it to be read? What is essential within it, and how might that be made visible? How do you begin to build a visual vocabulary that aligns with those intentions, one that is specific, consistent, and grounded in the realities of the projects themselves? The aim of the sessions is to create a space where those questions can be tested with care and precision, where experience, insight, and critical discussion begin to shape a clearer way of seeing. If regenerative architecture asks us to rethink how we design, then it seems only reasonable that we also rethink how we look.
Upcoming dates
- Wednesday 3rd June, Downstairs at dMFK, 76 Charlotte St, London W1, 9am-12pm
- Wednesday 29th July, Marine Court, St Leonard’s-on-Sea, East Sussex, 10am-1pm
- Thursday 10th September, Thetford Forest, Norfolk, 10am-1pm
- Tuesday 29th September at Collective Works, Unit 5.06, Leroy House, 436 Essex Road London N1 3QP, 2pm-5pm
- Sunday 6th December, Harry CJ Wix, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 10am-1pm
Refreshments will be served.
Attendance is free to RAI members but places are strictly limited so booking is essential.
Email Lorna Soar at lornan@lornasoar.co.uk to book your place.
