Prof. Gerard Smulevich receives 2021 AIA|LA Architecture Photography Merit Award

Marginal Gothic. © Gerard Smulevich

A big congratulations to Prof. Gerard Smulevich for receiving a Merit Award in the 2021 AIA|LA Architecture Photography Awards. The awarded photograph is a piece called Marginal Gothic. Of the photograph, the award jury said:

“The vertical grandeur of the interstitial space of highway infrastructure captured in an image populated by a stray dog and a pair communicating in the depth of the picture, lit by the rising sun…Within this infrastructural cathedral, the two congregants at the backlit altar and the one sniffing around in the pews are each subject to an all-powerful, omnipresent eye – the camera.”

In a video explaining his work, Smulevich said: “Only when a place is broken does it expose its hidden truths. My work explores the inherent beauty of dysfunctional landscapes that only reveal their soul when viewed and isolated through the photographic frame…The camera objective triggers memories of other places, things, or experiences. An almost romanticist re-imagining of reality through a controlled optical distortion called a photograph.”

Barceloneta. © Gerard Smulevich

Prof. Smulevich also received a 2020 AIA|LA Architecture Photography Award for his piece entitled Barceloneta, taken in Barcelona, Spain.

Be sure to follow Prof. Smulevich on Instagram @gsmulevich. And check out more about his work at pbase.com/gerards.