Strategy and Agency in Architectural Photographs: Imaging Strategies that Shaped an Architectural Magazine in Interwar Hungary

Abstract

“Without modern photography modern architecture could never have been ‘put across’” claimed the English architecture critic Philip Morton Shand in 19341. As he stated, photography had the power to spread modern architecture to a broad audience, and indeed its dissemination was largely due to modern photography and print culture. One of the key figures in the mediation of modern architecture in interwar Hungary was the architect Virgil Bierbauer, who between 1928 and 1942 edited the main platform of modernist architects in Hungary, the journal Tér és Forma (Space and Form). This richly illustrated magazine reported on modern architecture in a state-of-the-art manner, featuring both Hungarian and international examples as well as theoretical arguments. Bierbauer was in contact with architects and editors from all over the world, as can be traced through his vast correspondence preserved at the Hungarian Museum of Architecture in Budapest. This network of professionals shaped the way modern architecture was presented in the pages of the magazine. In my paper, I focus on the representation of international modern architecture in Tér és Forma while analysing Bierbauer’s editorial work. Professional networks, photographs and imaging strategies are all considered as means of communication that factored into the editing processes of the magazine. I consider Bierbauer’s role as an editor, architect and traveller and how these different guises were reflected in the magazine.