sunset and panoramic view of London Aquatics Center

It's all in the process – we talk studying abroad, making mistakes and learning new skills

Published date

05 Sep 2019

Author

Megan St Clair Morgan

We've all had those experiences which change the way we work going forward, we caught up with Nestor Sarmiento – who joined us for our short course, Architectural Photography. Based in Santiago de Chile, Nestor selected the course to support his architectural business – travelling to London to join the three-day course. Topping up his previous studies in Architecture and Photography, Nestor wanted to explore his experience of buildings through photography.

Tell us about you…

I was born in Argentina in a small town called Santa Rosa. For 10 years now I’ve been living in Santiago de Chile. My interests are photography and art in general – although I must say that I'm very interested Cinema too.

My first experience of the architectural image was through renderings. I worked for three years in a studio located in Buenos Aires. They were the main providers for Zaha Hadid Architects and Foster and Partners. After that, when I moved to Chile I started my own company where I continued doing renderings but always hoped to work as a photographer.

The main reason I do architectural photography is to experience the buildings. After finishing my studies I wasn’t very happy with the actual practice architecture as a profession but I still consider myself very passionate about it. So, being a photographer gives me the chance to enjoy buildings. It also allows me to know new places, visit different towns, and encounter new experiences.

You created some beautiful imagery during the course, how do you hope to take forward the skills/techniques into your professional work?

I hope to develop my skills to showcase properly my future assignments and fulfill my clients expectations, and go through the entire process with total confidence.

Regarding the architectural photography course, my expectation was to get the chance to learn from two professionals with more experience than I as well as the experience of being working in a different situation (country, city, continent) than mine.It was exactly what I was expecting. Marcela and Freya shared with us all their experience and allowed us to understand how they work and create their images.

The feedback I received for my images during the course made me realize that I was making some fundamental mistakes regarding composition. My images from now on will be quite different and I am feeling a lot more confident about my skills. I must say that I'm already really liking my new images.