Nikola Olić, born in 1974 in Yugoslavia, is a Serbian-American photographer renowned for his architectural photography that captures the poetic and portrait-like essence of modern structures. His work explores architecture’s infinite visual possibilities, transcending traditional boundaries by engaging with ambiguous, disorienting, and abstract subjects. Through his lens, buildings transform into intimate portraits and sculptural studies, revealing hidden narratives and unconventional beauty in everyday sights.
Structured under his brand, Structure Photography, Olić’s approach to architectural photography is philosophically rich, focusing on the intersections between the familiar and the unfamiliar. This perspective enables a deeper public connection to architecture, fostering a shared visual language that spans local and global memories and recognizes the fluid scope of architectural photography. His work, devoid of commercial constraints, invites viewers to reimagine the permanence of architectural forms with delightful ambiguity. Internationally recognized, his photographs have featured prominently in global publications like the New York Times and have earned him a spot among the 30 photographers in the UK’s 2023 Aesthetica Art Prize, solidifying his status in the contemporary photographic landscape.
What inspires you as an architectural photographer?
Revolutionary, unexpected, creative, surprising, unusual, and strange architecture offers the most fulfilling photography opportunities. Not knowing which way things will go can be rewarding and exciting, and a way to build instincts and store potential ideas for the future.
What led you to specialize in architectural photography?
I think that I’m in love with architecture much more than I’m in love with photography. I was never a photographer who specialized in architecture but rather the other way around: I was much more fascinated and interested in architecture and found photography to be a rewarding discipline through which to examine it and enjoy it and make it live and breathe.
How do you prepare for a photo shoot to ensure you capture the essence of the building?
I study its shape and surroundings on Google Earth and Street View, identify all the ways I can approach it, and calculate when the most light will be hitting the building and from which side. This provides the framework and guardrails that allow me to be playful, flexible, and free once I’m there.
Can you tell us about your favorite architectural project and what makes it stand out to you?
The Kimbell Art Museum invited me to create new photographs of their Louis Kahn masterpiece building, and then present and discuss the photographs at an event at the museum, in their wonderful Louis Kahn auditorium.
What is your favorite architectural detail, and why?
The space, volume, and shape the building claims as a public sculpture, and the building facade which I see as a painting.
How would you describe your photographic philosophy when capturing architecture?
As an independent photographer rather than a commercial architectural photographer, my photographic philosophy is really just a life philosophy. Be fresh and rested and ready when shooting, give it plenty of time and attention, don’t be in a hurry and don’t have expectations that it will work out or not, or will the photographs be “good” or not.
How do you balance artistic expression and accurately represent the architect’s vision in your photography?
Discussing this very topic with an editor from Texas Architect magazine a few years ago was very helpful. Deprioritizing the communication of architectural intent is a key element—and perhaps a subdued tension—in my photography. If the primary goal of conventional architectural photography is to explain the built environment, my photography brazenly abstracts it. My compositions are playful and disorienting in a way that architectural photography rarely is, obscuring key details that might otherwise offer clues regarding scale and perspective.
How does the surrounding environment—natural light, weather, and landscape—affect your approach to photographing architecture?
Natural light is the most important factor. My camera is small and light and perfect for long sessions—I use just one camera and lens and no tripod—but it’s not good enough for low light. I don’t like clouds but occasionally can incorporate them successfully.
How do you approach working with architects and designers to capture their vision through your lens?
As an independent photographer, I only occasionally collaborate with architects or designers and most of the time work on my own and create photographs for myself. Photography can and does celebrate architecture, but is not necessarily beholden to it or a derivative of it.
Are there any current trends in architecture or photography that you find particularly inspiring or challenging to capture?
I can’t speak to trends in photography with any particular authority as I am not familiar with or exposed to them, however, in architecture, I am always interested in any echoes of brutalism and Art Deco as I find them visually fascinating and historically venerable.
Can you share the story behind one of your favorite architectural shoots and how you approached capturing its materiality and texture?
This photograph of the UN and the Chrysler building in NYC combines the sculptural and the flat, the 3D and the 2D in a balanced way. The UN appears as a beautiful yet blank plane that can carry a lot of weight in a photograph while the Chrysler building looks like half a rocket ready to take off. I have worked on a satisfactory usage of the UN facade towards this photograph for 5 years.
What do you enjoy most about photography?
The slow peace and quiet in my mind, to both create photographs and to enjoy photographs.
Do you have any advice for young photographers who aspire to specialize in architectural photography?
If you can create and execute personal unpaid architectural photography projects where you take 500 photographs in 5 hours and then curate them for another 5 hours to identify 5 strongest photographs, then I think you will have found a sustainable long-term path for a rewarding architectural photography career.
