MPB Meets: Architectural Photographer Martina Ferrera

Transatlantic architectural photographer Martina Ferrera speaks to us this week about her craft, her background and her influences. Read on to find out more about Martina and her work.

MPB: Can you tell us a bit about how you got into photography?

MF: My interest in photography started as an architecture student in Rome, where I would use photography to document and complement my design projects. I got even more into it when I had to make work for an urban photography course. The professor was teaching with Lewis Baltz in Venice and I got obsessed with Baltz’s work. I’m now less interested in the New Topographics, but I think it’s been a great starting point for my career as an architectural photographer.

MPB: What was your photography journey, did you start out on a specific type of photography that eventually led you to a more architectural style?

MF: After my MA in Architecture in Rome, I moved to Toronto, where I was born. I wanted to try and live there for a few months to discover the city and also be close to a part of my family living there. While I was looking for jobs in architecture, a photographer I met suggested to get in touch with A-Frame Studio, one of the most famous architecture photography studios in Toronto and so I did. I got completely fascinated with the idea of becoming an architectural photographer, waking up early to spend a full day in beautiful houses and buildings, studying the light to document each space. Since the assisting days at A-Frame, I never looked back. I came to London and completed an MA in Fine Art Photography and that has been a complementary experience that allowed me to expand my photographic knowledge.

MPB: What has your kit journey been? What do you shoot on?

MF: I had the chance to work with technical cameras—Arca Swiss paired with a Leaf digital back and beautiful manual lenses—from the beginning. Here in London, I also had access to similar kit, but I soon realised that a smaller full-frame DSLR camera would be much more manageable. Especially as I usually document the development of a project from beginning to end, on construction site also. Now, I regularly shoot with the most common set of tilt-shift lenses and I think they are essential to architectural photography. I also use film for personal projects and love shooting with my Hasselblad.

MPB: Is there anyone whose work you draw inspiration from?

MF: There are several artists I really like, they have very different styles from one another. I’m always very fascinated by the composition in the work of Jeff Wall and the uncertain meanings of his photographs. I also love the use of colour and shadows in Vivian Sassen’s photographs; the calmness in the Italian landscapes photographed by Guido Guidi and the soft and atmospheric way Alfred Stieglitz portrays New York. I remember staring at his small photos at Tate Modern a while ago and thinking that I really wanted to walk on rooftops and photograph cities.

MPB: As a woman, what's your experience of being an architectural photographer? How accessible is the genre?

MF: I’m really proud to be a woman working in architectural photography. This is still considered a predominantly male profession—probably because of the heavy equipment to carry around and time to spend alone in the streets in strange hours. But I see more and more female architectural photographers producing beautiful work around the world. I often like to look at architecture photographs and guess who is behind the camera, looking for clues in style between male and female photographers. In some cases, women’s work is more atmospheric, I think and if architecture photography is moving away from the classic empty photographs, focusing only on the shape and monumentality of a building, I hope that the vibrant and dynamic touch of female photographers becomes more and more present over time.

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