Iwan Baan


Iwan Baan is a Dutch photographer. He has challenged a long-standing tradition of depicting buildings as isolated and static by representing people in architecture and showing the building's environment, trying "to produce more of a story or a feel for a project" and "to communicate how people use the space". He has photographed buildings by many of the world's most prominent architects, including Rem Koolhaas and Toyo Ito. He is "one of the most widely published" photographers in the world. His candid "polysemic shots" have been compared to the work of Diane Arbus.
In 2010, he won the first annual Julius Shulman Photography Award, named after the most famous architectural photographer of the 20th century.
At the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale he received the Golden Lion for Best Installation. In 2012, he took the image of Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy that made the cover of New York City magazine—showing light above 42nd St. and darkness below that line—illustrating vividly the storm's disparate impact. It was later turned into a limited edition print sold to benefit Sandy's victims. In April 2016, Baan received the AIA New York's Stephen A. Kliment Oculus Award.

Published books