Dennis Gilbert was born in South Africa in 1951. He was educated in the USA and immigrated to London, England in 1983, where he established himself as a leading architectural photographer and co-founded the photographic agency, View Pictures, specialising in architectural photography.
Architectural photographer, and photo agency co-founder, Dennis Gilbert was born in South Africa in 1951, where he grew up; he subsequently studied electrical engineering at the University of Natal (1971–73). Post graduation, in 1975, he travelled through South America for a year, before eventually moving to the USA. By 1980 he had obtained an MFA in photography from the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, where he trained under Jo Ann Callis, with a particular interest in American topographical photographers active from the 1930s onward. His favoured photographers and influences include Berenice Abbott, Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Dorothea Lange, Nicholas Nixon, John Pfahl, Paul Strand, Stephen Shore, and Ed Ruscha. Gilbert immigrated to London, England in 1983 and began working as an architectural photographer.
For over three decades, his practice was dedicated to photographing buildings and the built environment. Working for cultural organisations and for many well-known architects, his photographs featured in numerous prestigious magazines, such as Architects’ Journal and the RIBA Journal. His photographic practice commenced at the zenith of analogue film, a time demanding scrupulous coordination of Polaroid studies with precise exposure and development. This method yielded transparencies bursting with detail. As digital photography emerged, Gilbert embraced new technologies. His photography is known particularly for blending context with detail, leveraging varying effects of light during the day to enhance the interplay of light and shadow on façades and the interplay of light and reflection through glass in contemporary architecture. His photographs reveal hidden dynamics within spaces, using glass not only to expose but also to layer perspectives. His portrayal of architecture - mixing aesthetic appeal with utility - significantly influenced contemporary architectural appreciation. Later, he worked with short film production, applying the same rigour and precision that defined his still imagery. Thinking about whether photography can be compared to other forms of expression, such as prose, poetry, drawing or painting, Gilbert quoted one of his favourite photographers, David Goldblatt, who stated that his work is ‘much closer to writing than painting […] putting together a whole string of photographs is like producing a piece of writing. There is the possibility of making coherent statements in an interesting, subtle, complex way’ (Goldblatt quoted in Gilbert, 2020).
Gilbert’s photographic oeuvre includes numerous buildings in the UK and abroad. He documented the Battersea Power Station Restoration Process (2014–20, in collaboration with Kilian O’Sullivan and Anthony Coleman) alongside a larger Power Station Series (2014–20). His portfolio also includes photographs of museums and galleries, such as the British Museum (the Great Court) and the Photographer's Gallery in London, Tate St Ives, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, and the Art Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland. Other featured buildings in London include City Hall and the London School of Economics, while subjects outside the capital include Kingston University, Reigate Grammar School, King’s School in Canterbury, and Vajrasana Buddhist Retreat in Suffolk. Gilbert's international work has included photographs of the City Hall in Reykjavik, DLR Lexicon building in Ireland, Toulouse School of Economics and Institut Mines-Télécom in France, the British Embassy in Georgia, and Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong, The architects, firms and institutions he worked with include Alison Brooks Architects, Carr Cotter Naessens, Foster + Partners, Grafton Architects, Jamie Fobert Architects, the National Trust, and O’Donnell + Tuomey, among others.
In addition to his photographic work, in 1997, together with a colleague, Gilbert co-founded View Pictures (sometimes referred to as VIEW), an architectural photography library and archive of architectural imagery, amassing images from around the world. In 2005, he was elected Honorary Fellow of Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for his contributions to contemporary architecture. Until 2021, Gilbert held the position of director of VIEW. Dennis Gilbert died in London, England in 2021. As of 2024, View was still in operation, run by Gilbert's partner, Susan Bockelmann, and housing the archives of more than 50 international architecture and interior photographers.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Dennis Gilbert]
Publications related to [Dennis Gilbert] in the Ben Uri Library