The Lives of Documents: Photography as Project

Photographic works in progress that underscore the medium’s role in contemporary architecture

How do photographers select, order and display their images? Conceived as part of a long-term project at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, The Lives of Documents examines the contemporary role of photography in the study and practice of architecture. Cocurated by photographers Bas Princen and Stefano Graziani, the project highlights a selection of projects that model our visible world by investigating notions of landscape and its destruction, global infrastructure, intimacy and interiority, and conditions of urban and domestic space and life. Through tracing photographers’ research materials, archiving practices and production processes, the project prompts reflections on the notion of documentation as an embedded quality of photography. This publication follows Princen and Graziani’s travels to understand how artists use photography as a tool for their artistic research and how they conceive of their projects as evolving explorations.
Artists include: Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lynne Cohen, Luigi Ghirri, Dan Graham, Jan Groover, Guido Guidi, Takashi Homma, Roni Horn, Armin Linke, Ari Marcopoulos, Gordon Matta-Clark, Richard Misrach, Marianne Mueller, Bruce Nauman, Michael Schmidt, Thomas Struth, Tokuko Ushioda, Jeff Wall, Marianne Wex.