Architectural Photography

Architectural Photography by Holt Webb


San Diego Magazine is currently featuring my photographs of a beautiful Rancho Santa Fe home in an article entitled, Cool Ranch, written by Deirdre O’Shea.

http://www.sandiegomag.com/issues/september06/featurec0906.asp




In April of 2006, San Diego Magazine featured my first photographs of a stunning home overlooking the cliffs of Encinitas.

This article was the first publication of my architectural work. Since that issue was released, I’ve had my architectural photographs published in three separate coffee table books defining architecture and the home:

Materializing the Immaterial
The Architecture of Wallace Cunningham
Published by Yale University Press

California...A Great Place to Live
Published by Rhino Media Works

Home
Published by Millennium House

It's all been very exciting, and very busy. And, it all came about because of an abandoned building in my neighborhood...

It was December 25, 2004 and the North Park Theatre had been under reconstructive demolition for over a year. What was once a state of the art Motion Picture house in the 1920s golden era of Hollywood, had begun a slow descent into abandonment and disrepair. When I arrived that Christmas morning, the theater had already been gutted and stripped of everything that could be removed without incorporating a wrecking ball. The seats were gone. The stage was empty. There were no fountains, no columns, no life. It was, simply put, a shell of its former self.

That is when I started the project. With the working lights still twinkling in the dark just before dawn, I climbed over the fence to record images of the theater in its second infancy. It was being reborn, and I knew I had to capture these moments lest they be lost forever behind new paint and acoustic paneling. I was trespassing, but I rationalized that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and decided that it was well worth the risk. And, looking back, I believe I made the right choice.

So, with teeth chattering from the cold (yes, it does get cold in San Diego in the winter) and cameras set up, I began the first of uncountable rolls of black and white film.
It took 3 months to get official permission to enter the property (for safety reasons), and another 8 months and countless trips back into the theater to record the progress of its renovation, but the completed project was well received by the new occupants of the Theatre, the San Diego Lyric Opera, as well as the developer and the architect that took on the massive reconstruction.

And, it was that series of images that inspired the developer and his personal architect to recommend me to shoot his home for San Diego Magazine. Since then, my Architectural work has been keeping pace with my Fine Art Photography work, and I owe it all to a little trespassing on Christmas morning.

www.holtwebb.com
www.myspace.com/holtwebb
© Holt Webb Photography