Traces by Edmund Sumner

The ‘Traces’ sequence collapses the binary opposition between the material and the metaphysical, peeling back invisible and visible layers of the architectural form to expose latent resonances from generations past.

In representing contexts as culturally and topographically diverse as Hacienda Holl in Mexico and Inagawa in Japan, it identifies cultural ‘traces’ as spiritual as well as historical phenomena; innate, eminently personal, yet universally felt and perceptible through an art-photography capable of documenting lived experiences in real time.

Each photograph reads as an aesthetically engaged histogram, reflecting the incredible depth of engagement which is not only perceptible in, but fundamental to architectural history.

About the Artist

Edmund Sumner is a London-based architectural photographer concerned with the ways in which light, space, and movement intersect and interact with one another. He has been collaborating with prominent publishing houses, government departments, design agencies, and architecture studios globally since 1998, including Foster + Partners, Burberry, and Rodic Davidson Architects; and published works of architectural photography in Britain and internationally. His second full-length book is due to be released with Thames and Hudson next year.

Edmund has recently worked with V&A South Kensington on ‘Tropical Modernism’, a photographic exploration of mid-century modern architecture in the equatorial zone. The exhibition has received critical acclaim for drawing out the symbolic resonances of modernism in post-independence India and Ghana through photographic design.