“From a documentary background, I seek the "found object" moments in the scenes of a space, that are informed by the living forms and how they inhabit their built environment.”
Meadow House, Location: Eugene OR, Architect: Waechter Architecture © Lara Swimmer/Esto
Lara Swimmer shoots on assignment for architecture and design firms around the globe. With a background in documentary film, her approach to architectural photography starts with what she considers the “found object,” which are real moments or scenes in the life of a room, a space, streetscape, or a building. Then working with natural ambient and available architectural light to interpret the scene, she works on instinct and emotion, to depict the space as she experiences it. By incorporating human or animal figures, the images become imbued with a sense of life, movement, scale, and humanity.
Her work has been featured in publications including Architect, Architectural Record, The New York Times, Dwell, Gray, Wallpaper*, LUXE, Metropolis, Residential Architect, Seattle Magazine, and Texas Architect, among others. Lara’s images have been included in national and international exhibits, as well as appeared in numerous architecture and design books. She has also contributed to and authored over five books with publisher Documentary Media, most notably, PROCESS: Seattle Central Library, INSPIRED: Churches of Seattle, and now in the works from Artifice Press, READING ROOM, New and Reimagined Libraries of the American West, 2023.
Sponsored by the Embassy of the UAE in the US, Lara was invited by the Meridian International Center to participate in an architecture delegation to the UAE in 2019. She was included in ArchDaily’s international list of ‘12 Women in Architecture Photography’ in 2018 and was made an honorary member of the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2005.
A Los Angeles native who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Lara is currently based in Seattle. She was a student of film theory and media at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School in Philadelphia, and at the Sorbonne’s Center for Film and Critical Studies in Paris. Lara holds degrees in both Film & Media Studies and French Literature.
recent Clients
A&E Design
atelierjones
Building Works
Dovetail
Graham Baba Architects
Heliotrope Architects
Hacker
Hewitt
HGA
Integrus
Lake Flato
LEICHT USA
Lever
LMN Architects
Miller Hull Partnership
Mithun
MSR Design
NBBJ
Olson Kundig
Perkins+Will
Seattle Symphony
Schemata
Signal R+D
Skylab Studios
Vulcan
Weinstein AU
Workshop AD
ZGF
Publications
Architect Magazine
Architectural Record
Dwell
Gray
LUXE
The New York Times
Metropolis
Residential Architect
Seattle Magazine
Texas Architect
*Wallpaper