Jenna Johnston to speak on Not Quite Light panel event

Senior Heritage Consultant, Jenna Johnston, is to speak on a panel event during this year’s Not Quite Light Weekend.

Curated by the Modernist Society, the event, titled ‘Frozen Music’, will offer a programme of film and discussion looking at how photography has influenced architectural styles.

The event will be led by editor of The Modernist, Eddy Rhead, who will present a present a short history of architectural photography and its role in the dissemination of Modernism.

This will be followed by a panel discussion looking at the techniques and disciplines of architectural photography and its role in the Instagram age.

Sitting alongside Jenna on the panel will be architectural photographer, Daniel Hopkinson, and Dr Richard Brook, Reader in Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture.

The event will conclude with a rare screening of the 2008 film Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, the American architectural photographer best known for his images of mid-century American architecture.

Commenting on the event, Jenna, said: “For me, photography and architecture isn’t a simple relationship. It’s a factual record, a source of information – we use it as a memory recall, to support work in the studio instead of being on site. We use it to illustrate documents and accurately portray a place to people reading that document. But it can also be art, expressive of a time or an opinion – it can be someone’s unique view or unique expression through editing and angles.

“In the ‘Instagram age’ people are using photographs of buildings to build huge follower counts and reputations as built experts. Sometimes this can result in the dissemination of false information, but at the same time, it’s bringing people together and helping audiences connected with aspects of their city that they had not quite considered before.”

The award-winning Not Quite Light Weekend is an annual festival organised by the photographer, Simon Buckley, whose major photographic series ‘Not Quite Light’ captures views of Manchester and Salford just before dawn breaks, and explores themes of heritage and regeneration, examining the transition of both cities as they embark upon ambitious change.

Frozen Music will be held on Saturday 30th March 2pm – 4pm at Five Four Studios, Oldfield Road, Salford. Tickets can be purchased here.