BHX MOD SOC MAP_ Photography: Simon Kennedy

This London-based architectural photographer manages to catch a lot of light for a place that has a notorious reputation for being grey (very much like Birmingham). His photographs of buildings at twilight are particularly beautiful.

Heygate Abstacted:

“Simon Kennedy’s photographs of the Heygate Estate prompt us to contemplate not the failure of modernism, but the failure of the failure of modernism, and the possibilities for reclaiming a mode of Utopian urban thinking. In doing so they provide a visual elaboration of a prominent theme in contemporary architectural debate. At a time of acute shortage of affordable housing, the photographs make us question the validity of the decision by Southwark Council to demolish these buildings—are they essentially and irretrievably a failure?”

These are issues that have faced Brutalist buildings in Birmingham, therefore following Kennedy’s photography style may be appropriate.





Sarah Abuzeid

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