Every year Arcaid Images presents an award to the architectural photographer whose winning image of the built environment exceeds in both photographic and architectural merit. This year the overall winner was Portuguese photographer Fernando Guerra, with his stunning image of the EPFL Quartier Nord in Ecublens, Switzerland.

Upon first glance, the awarded image compels not only in terms of linear composition and dynamic use of light, but particularly due to the human element that instils the building with a sense of life. In an interview while driving from his hometown Lisbon to do a shoot in Fátima, Fernando Guerra sheds some light onto his working methods.

Guerra’s interest in photography stems from a young age, picking up his first camera as a 16 year old. Unsure of his artistic voice, young Guerra shot everything around him in an effort to find exactly what interested him in the surrounding world. He eventually trained as an architect and whilst working in Macao for 5 years, Guerra became increasingly enchanted with documenting street life. It is easy to see the influence of his early passion for street photography when looking at his winning Arcaid image, blending the rigidity and grandeur of traditional architectural images with the pulse and humanity found on the street. Indeed, Guerra believes his own style to be a sort of hybrid between certain elements of architectural and street photography, emerging out of the conceptual problems he encountered during his architectural education. Read more