Ian Fraser strips away the clutter to get to the heart of our city’s architectural gems, writes Julie Webb

When photographer Ian Fraser felt the need for a new and stimulating career challenge, he turned to a subject close to home.

“I’ve always been interested in architectural photography,” he said. “And I’ve always loved the buildings in Oxford. But they’ve been photographed so much — there are so many of those romantic postcard images. I wanted to find a way of looking at the architecture which was different, and also isolated it from all the ‘clutter’.

“You come across such fabulous buildings, with some stunning detail. I wanted to be able to show the whole building, whole streets of buildings, in their entirety, as the architect would have conceived them. I thought about it for ages and couldn’t work out how to do it; then suddenly realised the technology I needed was available.”

The seeds of Ian’s enthusiasm for architecture, and an appreciation of photography’s role in recording it, were sown during an excitingly nomadic childhood.

His father was an engineer on projects in Aden and Peru (and, nearer to home, Brize Norton, where Ian was born).

“He was a keen amateur photographer and took thousands of pictures. I remember our travels mainly through the photographs,” said Ian, who nows lives at Cumnor. “Because I was so young, it’s difficult sometimes to distinguish between a real memory and a ‘memory’ created by looking at a picture. I do remember the Catholic churches in Peru though: incredibly lavishly decorated — rich interiors dripping with gold and paintings.

Back in England at the age of 11, and rapidly losing the fluent Spanish he had acquired as a six-year-old in a Spanish school, Ian went to St.Paul’s, Hammersmith, followed by Harrow School of Art.
“When I finished there I took a lease with three others on an old Victorian Sunday School in Chiswick, and started to earn a living as a photographer specialising in still life advertising for magazines.

“After moving to Oxford I did a lot of work on Oxford University Press book covers — the Oxford Literary Guide among them.

Gradually, he developed the idea of producing contemporary architectural prints.

“They have traditional subjects, with fabulous detail, and a traditional feel: the paper is very thick, German mould-made paper. But they’re made using modern computer technology and inks.

“They are Giclé prints, which give fantastic detail and colour saturation. With the toned prints based on black-and-white photographs I was influenced by the traditional ochres and pinks of Renaissance artists like Da Vinci.

“I did a huge amount of research and I’m always looking for the best new materials for archival purposes — materials that won’t fade,“ he added.

“My speciality is a technique which gives the image a different type of perspective from a photograph — it is flat, like an architectural drawing. I use the same criteria an artist would employ if he sat down in front of the building with an easel and could see the image he wanted in his head. I remove the clutter, but I don’t put anything in that isn’t there.

“I like to have as much texture as possible in the prints and bring out the contours of the architecture.

Ian’s first subjects were the Radcliffe Camera and the Examination Schools, followed by New College. The Colleges receive a donation from the sale of each print. Many of his customers are alumnni.

“We ship prints all over the world — Canada, Europe, South Africa — but our main overseas market is America. Many professionals like lawyers and company directors buy them for their office or boardroom walls. They also make wonderful presents for old College members and people just graduating and they look fantastic framed.

“These buildings are never going to change” Ian said. “They’ll still be the same in years to come — so I hope, with their high level of detail, the prints will become an architectural resource.

He aims to cover all the buildings of any architectural significance in Oxford and, with 60 or 70 already in his virtual archive, Ian thinks that he is about two-thirds of the way through. And now he is thinking globally.

“I have already started making prints of Venice and will soon be starting on Cambridge. It is all very much in its infancy really. I just started it because I enjoyed it, and I’d be very happy to spend the rest of my life doing it.”



For more information call Ian Fraser on 01865 864100