Bad Language: Architectural Snapshots by Max Creasy
Max Creasy’s photographic exhibition Bad Language explores the relationship between the snapshot and architecture.
Collaborating with a group of young architects and architectural practices – Kastler Skjeseth, Takeshi Hayatsu, OMMX, Sauter von Moos, Weyell Zipse and Lütjens Padmanabhan – he investigates the idiosyncratic, humane and humorous sensibilities (and possibilities) of the architectural image. Bad Language presents a selection of Creasy’s photographic work shot in conjunction with these practices from 2018–25.
Max Creasy is an Australian-Norwegian visual artist living and working between London and Berlin. Creasy’s architectural photography has moved away from the formal nature of ‘new objective’ photography, characterised by clinical documentary views, towards an idiosyncratic language that uses the ‘snapshot’ to explore vernacular aspects of photography and architecture.
This use of the snapshot within architectural photography can be considered a form of ‘bad language’, as it goes against the polished formalism of established architectural codes. The same could be said for the work of Creasy’s architect collaborators, who value the casual over the rigid and aim to establish holistic practices that result in a rich physical framework for contemporary life.
Creasy’s collaboration with these architectural practices is shaped by their ongoing working relationships. He captures candid impressions of the teams at work, as well as documenting how their buildings are inhabited and lived with, in contrast to more formal architectural photography which is so often devoid of human presence.
26 September – 6 December 2025
11:00 - 19:00
Architectural Association
Front Members' Room and Bar, First Floor, 36 Bedford Square, London
Image: Max Creasy, Kanzlei Strasse, 2021. Kanzleistrasse 95 is a social housing project by Lütjens Padmanabhan in Zurich. The building’s rich, ornate façade has been carefully restored with its subtle, tonal quality preserved. Bright green windows and doors at the base hint that the building has come back to life. The green colour directly references James Stirling’s iconic green, seen in the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and the Clore Gallery at Tate Britain. Today, this loud green has become part of the repertoire of Lütjens Padmanabhan and other European architects fascinated by Stirling’s postmodern period.
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