While having held a camera in his hand for over 50 years, it was attaining a Diploma of Photoimaging in 2013 from the CATC Design School, Think Education Group, that opened Paul’s eyes and mind to the amazing world of architectural photography. Trained as a geologist, he has a good understanding of the “architecture” of the Earth and the “materiality” of many building products, particularly masonry. His sensitivity and awareness of the natural environment and the ever-increasing overlaying of the built environment upon it, is underpinned by his zoology undergraduate studies and professional work as an environmental scientist.
In pursuing his visual craft, Paul is informed by stylistic architectural movements and their influence on today’s building design, and is especially attracted to inter-war functionalism and Dutch expressionist design. Through his work he has documented the aesthetics of contemporary urbanscapes and is conscious of how sustainable architecture, creative design and land-use function can be important determinants of positive development in the built environment.
He has a keen interest photographing building heritage that may encompass elegant late-colonial styles, Art Deco, inter-war expressionist and functionalist designs, as well as “in your face” concrete “Brutalist” architecture, and sublime mid-century modern houses. He is keen to commit heritage buildings to a lasting visual historical record as they are “the silent witnesses of history.” For Paul, “the legacy of heritage architectural imagery is important in not only recording our past, but also understanding and gaining a sense of the places where we have lived as a society, as well as informing our future.”
He is inspired by modern-era architectural photographers from the inter-war (e.g. Frank Yerbury) and post-war periods (e.g. Ezra Stoller, Julius Shulman, Max Dupain and Wolfgang Sievers). Also inspirational, are many other contemporary photographers, who document the fluid relationship between the everyday needs of a growing urban population and liveable and sustainable environments, achieved by sustainable architectural design and construction technology. The photography of Robert Polidori, Edward Burtynsky and Shinichiro Kobayashi are the epitome in raising societal awareness and influencing change by graphically showing examples of the impact of industry on the environment.
Paul’s architectural photographic work encompasses:
Urban housing / Civil Engineering / Industrial / Construction / Contemporary Suburban / Interior / Heritage / Health & Education architecture.
An Accredited Professional Photographer with the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP), until its demise in 2021 (due to Covid-19), Paul remains a member of the Art Deco & Modernism Society of Australia. He has passed on his photographic skills, knowledge and passion as a sessional lecturer at the Billy Blue College of Design, Torrens University, and facilitated night photography group meet-ups.
In 2017, his own passion for historical architecture from the interwar period led Paul to pursue a part-time doctoral research project in architectural history at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Queensland. In 2024 he completed his doctorate “Why Go Modern? The Catholic School Designs of Frank L. Cullen.” It highlights 18 schools designed in a “moderately modern” version of an inter-war functionalist style produced by Queensland architect, Frank Leo Cullen (1909-91) for the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland between 1940 to 1955. They were emblematic of a shift in school architecture by the Catholic Church in Queensland during the inter-/post-war period. They differed from the schools the Church had built before and preceded the adoption of modernism for State school architecture. Their moderate (not-extreme) modern appearance is significant when linked to the secular education Catholic schools provided – effectively functioning as “billboards” to build public awareness and supporting an attempt for the Church’s ‘claim’ for government funding for their primary and secondary schools. These schools also resulted in the dissemination of Modernism/functionalism in Southeast Queensland.
[+]61(0)428.843.512
paul [at] pauldphotography [dot] com [dot] au
