Architecture & Photography: Hélène Binet in conversation with Valeria Carullo
Hélène Binet, ‘The myth of Niobe’ Meshworks by Zaha Hadid, Villa Medici Gardens, Rome, Italy, 2000. Courtesy Hélène Binet and Large Glass, London.
An institution that champions buildings to better suit communities and the environment, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) houses one of the world’s foremost collections of architectural photography. Valeria Carullo, curator at RIBA speaks in conversation with Swiss-French architectural photographer Hélène Binet, considered by many as one of the leading architectural photographers in the world. Their conversation explores the RIBA collection and the importance of the role of photography within architecture and how photography is considered at all stages of designing and building modern structures.
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Hélène Binet was born in 1959 in Sorengo and is of both Swiss and French background. She currently lives in London with her husband Raoul Bunschoten and their two children, Izaak and Saskia. She studied photography at the Instituto Europeo di Design in Rome, where she grew up, and soon developed an interest in architetural photography. Over a period of twenty-five years Hélène Binet has photographed both contemporary and historical architecture. Her list of clients include architects Raoul Bunschoten, Caruso St John, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Studio Mumbai, Peter Zumthor and many others. While following the work of contemporary architects – often from construction through completion – Hélène Binet has also photographed the works of past architects as Alvar Aalto, Geoffrey Bawa, Le Corbusier, Sverre Fehn, John Hejduk, Sigurd Lewerentz, Andrea Palladio and Dimitris Pikionis. More recently, Hélène Binet has started to direct her attention to landscape photography, wherein she transposes key concerns of her architectural photography. Hélène Binet’s work has been published in a wide range of books, and is shown in both national and international exhibitions. Hélène Binet is an advocate of analogue photography and therefore she exclusively works with film.
