Andrew Pielage visited a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed space for the first time in 2011. The then-hotel manager with a love for landscape photography was hooked.
“Once you see it, it’s hard to not go back and see more,” Pielage says. “It’s not just something you see. Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture is something you feel. He’s curating our experience in his buildings through his design techniques.”
That visit to Taliesin West started a journey into architectural photography – and the massive goal of photographing all 400-plus remaining Wright-designed spaces, which has become Pielage’s calling card. It has allowed him to focus on photography, shooting and teaching, full time.
Pielage developed a love for photography as a child while camping with his family around Arizona, where they had moved from Ohio. Using disposable cameras, Pielage would take pictures of whatever caught his eye. Outside of a semester of photography at Northern Arizona University, Pielage is self-taught. “My roots in photography are landscapes,” he says. “Frank Lloyd Wright helped me bridge that gap between landscape and architecture, because he does it so well himself.”
Pielage’s study of Wright – he’s photographed 115 of the architect’s designs so far – is on display at Taliesin West through January 29. The exhibition, Sacred Spaces, considers how Wright’s designs create sanctified places, from religious buildings to those that seamlessly connect with nature, like Fallingwater.
Pielage’s own creative space has an air of personal sanctity – the chair his mother rocked him in, stones that remind him of his geologist father and other personal mementos. The studio, which extends off his Garfield home, will also soon become a gallery space. A nod to the former streetcar line, Brill Gallery is slated to open in the fall, along with a Wright-related library of books Pielage has amassed over the years.
Learn more at apizm.com and follow Pielage on Instagram @apielage.
