Some aspire to art for art’s sake, but this week I’m talking about adding art to a home in post-production for the photo’s sake. It’s just the nature of photographing architecture that art is sometimes not in place when I take the photos. In the opening photo, there was a beautiful concrete wall, window, and hanging light fixture at the end of the landing but no art. Certainly the homeowners will eventually find something exactly to their liking, but the piece I added for the photograph serves the need in the meantime.
Because there are important ethical and legal considerations related to permissions for usage and reproduction of creative works, I often use my own photos for this purpose. The black and white image I used above is a photograph I made the Price home in Phoenix designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 
For this home in Park City designed and built by the Jaffa Group, the homeowner had commissioned two pieces specifically for the wall spaces flanking the fireplace. She had rights to use the images of the art, so I dropped photos of the art pieces in during post-production in the positions she planned to hang the art.
This hallway photograph showed a beautiful juxtaposition of materials and shadows but without art, it lacked a focal point. The photograph at the end of the hallway is one of a series of six giclée prints of Frank Lloyd Wright details I sold; this one is of a stairway in the Marin County Civic Center.
The views over the soaking tub in this mountain home are so dramatic in person that you don’t necessarily note the large plain wall next to it, but not so in the photograph. I added a black and white detail photo of the stairs in architect Ray Cappe’s home that adds presence without detracting from the design and construction of the space.
Art directs the viewer’s eye. In the first of these paired photographs, the eye is drawn back to the goldenrod wall and celadon chairs. In the second, the addition of the photo to the near partition wall takes the eye to the front of the space. I offer clients the choice of the two photographs. The black and white detail photograph is of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock house.
It’s the nature of a photographer to do whatever is in her/his power to make the photo better and stronger, and adding art is just one more thing that’s possible with digital photography. Just be careful to respect the rights of artists when you drop in art pieces.
See more of Scot Zimmerman’s work here!
