A library interior seen from below, white ceilings and long shelves

[ About ]

Ilan Vestergaard

Copenhagen
Architecture and interiors, stills and film

Why buildings

I photograph buildings because they cannot pose. They wait for the light, and so do I. Eleven years in, I still carry one lens, one tripod and too much patience.

A tall window with lamps against a pale sky

Architects hire me for the record: true lines, honest light, the building as it was drawn. Magazines hire me for the picture that makes a reader stop. Most jobs need both.

[ Copenhagen / since 2015 ]

A concrete stair rising past a white wall

[ How I shoot ]

Every building starts from three settings

A shoot is planned around the sun, not the calendar. These three numbers stay the same on almost every job; everything else follows the light.

Book a shoot

  1. 01

    24 mm

    Wide, never wider

    A shift lens wide enough for a facade, long enough that rooms keep their size.

    • Tilt and shift
    • No distortion fixes
    • Same lens since 2015

  2. 02

    f/11

    Sharp from door to ridge

    Front to back in focus, so the plan reads in the picture.

    • Corner to corner
    • Tripod always
    • Bracketed for light

  3. 03

    ISO 100

    Clean shadows

    Long exposures over noise. Concrete keeps its grain, glass keeps its depth.

    • Exposures to 30 s
    • No flash
    • Blended by hand
A dark glass building against a pink evening sky

[ Commissions ]

Four ways to work together. Most projects mix two, and every one starts with a site visit.

“I don't make buildings look better. I wait until they look like themselves.”