The finished building
The elevation squared up, and the same building seen the way a person actually meets it: from the pavement, at the hour when the light describes the facade instead of flattening it.
Architectural photography
Buildings photographed as buildings
Dio Surbakti photographs architecture: the finished building on its street, the room before anyone moves in, the joint between two materials, and the record of a site as it goes up. No people in frame, no staging that the building does not already have.
What is photographed
Four kinds of picture
Most commissions are a mix of these. The brief says which of them matters most, and the shoot is planned around that answer rather than around a fixed package.
Interiors before they are occupied
Rooms photographed empty, so the space, the daylight and the proportions are what the picture is about. Nobody appears in frame and nothing is dressed in to suggest a life that is not there yet.
Materials and details
The close pictures that explain how something was built: a junction, a reveal, a handrail, the texture of a wall under raking light. Useful when the drawing shows the intent and the photograph has to show the result.
A record of the work
The same viewpoints revisited while a site is live, so there is an honest sequence of what was there in which month. Frames and angles are logged and repeated, which is what makes the series readable later.
How it runs
From the first message to the finished files
Four stages, the same whether it is one afternoon on one house or a sequence returning to a site over several months.
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01
The brief
You say what the building is, where it is, what the pictures are for and when they are needed. Drawings or a plan help; a few sentences are enough to start.
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02
Written quote
A short document: the shot list, the number of finished images, the date, the licence that comes with them and the price. Nothing is booked until that is accepted.
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03
The shoot
Timed to the light the building needs, with access and keys arranged beforehand. Frames are checked on site against the list before the day is called finished.
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04
Selection and delivery
A proof set to choose from, then the chosen frames finished and delivered as files in the sizes you asked for, with the licence attached in writing.
Before the shutter
What is agreed in advance
Written down here so it does not have to be asked twice.
- Who does the work
- One photographer. The person who answers the enquiry is the person holding the camera and finishing the files.
- Licence
- Agreed in the quote: where the pictures may be used, for how long, and whether anyone else may be given them. Credit is asked for where a credit line is possible.
- What you receive
- Finished files at full size and in web sizes, named so they can be filed. Unselected frames are not delivered and are not published.
- People and privacy
- No portraits and no pictures of occupants. If someone walks into a frame, that frame is not used.
- Access and travel
- Arranged with you before the date. Travel beyond the city is quoted separately and shown as its own line.
- Weather and light
- An exterior day can be moved once at no cost when the sky makes the planned pictures impossible.
- Payment
- Nothing is sold or paid for on this website. Invoicing is arranged directly once a quote has been accepted.
Questions
Asked before most commissions
If the question you have is not below, the request page is the place to put it.
How small can a commission be?
One building and a handful of frames is a normal job. A single elevation photographed properly is more useful than thirty pictures taken in a hurry.
Do you photograph people?
No. The subject is the building, the room and the material. Interiors are photographed empty, and a frame someone walks into is simply not used.
Can the pictures be taken from a drawing?
No. Everything here is photographed on site, from what was actually built. If the building is not finished, the honest answer is a construction record, not a picture of a finished building.
How much is retouched?
Exposure, colour, straightening and the removal of passing dirt or a stray cable. Nothing is added, moved or invented, and the file you receive matches what stood there on the day.
Who may use the images afterwards?
Whoever the licence names. It is written into the quote before the shoot so there is no argument later about a magazine, an award entry or a contractor asking for a copy.
How quickly is an enquiry answered?
Enquiries arrive by email and are read by the one person who would do the work, so the answer is written rather than automatic.
Have a building that needs photographing?
Say what it is, where it stands and what the pictures are for. You receive a written quote with a shot list and a licence, not a sales call.