多年来，蒂莫西·申克（Timothy Schenck）将自己应用于结构工程。他获得了物理和工程学位，并获得了结构的硕士学位。然后，他在纽约市的两家公司度过了13年，然后将职业放在一边，赢得了建筑摄影师的谋生。从某种意义上说，那一刻的20年是为他的新职业培训。
When ENR selects judges for itsannual construction photography contests, we include a professional photographer, a construction safety expert and ENR editors and art department designers. Schenck was this year’s construction photographer on the panel.
ENR: How did you come to switch careers?
SCHENCK:A consulting firm, that’s kind of a big machine and you’re a cog in a design team that’s part of it. My creative side didn’t get a chance to stretch as much as my analytic side. I was always working inside the envelope the architect designed. The job is to make architecture do amazing things—and there are many creative things you can do to make a structure super efficient or do things that defy the eye—and that is fun—but still, you are working within that little envelope.
Also the duration of projects you work on could be years, and you might be limited to a handful of projects for a long while. I had a wanderlust to always have something new. That’s kind of where I’m going with my life philosophy—to work on projects that I enjoy so I don’t feel like I’m working, and to work on projects that are a part of history, that have a legacy at the end of the day.
How did your years of study and practice prepare you for construction photography?
I spent seven years in school learning how to build, and then 13 years in the field solving real problems to get things built. I have an understanding of the process. I can identify the different people on the jobsite, and what they are contributing to building the building.
我知道那块钢将是一根圆柱，那件件是用于毛the板的，这是瞬间框架。我知道焊工在做什么，以及螺栓固定的东西，所以我知道什么是重要的 - 当人们谈论摄影的决定性时刻时，我知道那一刻会在工作场所上，因为我了解基本面。
What was the trigger that made you decide to walk away from your corporate paycheck?
I developed a photography habit while working as an engineer. I just started sticking the camera into my bag and taking it everywhere. I was shooting the normal existing-conditions and progress shots, but also I started to look at the artistic things, the patterns and the colors and the geometry.
Then, in 2007, a co-worker invited me to check out one of his projects. It was the High Line, and I was hooked. The place was magical. The project was just getting started, and I started going there every other week before work to capture the transformation.
At work I was dealing with meetings and bosses and that corporate side, but this let me expand my creativity and exercise that other side of my brain. I had a good contact list of architects and contractors, and when they heard what I was doing they thought, “Why don’t I take a chance with this guy?” I started my photography business in 2011.
How do you go about your work?
我尝试用有关人和过程的照片讲故事。我将思考方式的分析部分与艺术部分结合在一起。我试图平衡它并显示项目的规模 - 摩天大楼的庞大规模，但人们至关重要。它不仅是在工厂制造的，而且倒了下来。人们焊接了所有焊缝，螺栓固定了所有螺栓。
还有你的设备？
I try to keep my set-up as simple and lightweight as possible so I can navigate a jobsite safely and not be a distraction. I wear a backpack, my personal protective equipment, my camera is around my neck and two lenses in bags over my shoulders. I use a Nikon full-frame DSLR with a set of three f2.8 zoom lenses: 14-24mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm. They are all the best lenses of that particular range you can get. I upgrade the bodies every few years, but I pay for the lenses once, and then I keep them on and on.
