Isokon -Original Modernism

Half-way along an unassuming north London street sits the Isokon Building. Not only is this 1920s original one of the few examples of pure architectural modernism to be found in the UK but it was also home to three people who were highly influential in the development of the modernist movement: Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus; Marcel Breuer, designer of modernist furniture; and László Moholy-Nagy, head teacher of art at the Bauhaus school in Berlin - and avant-garde photographer. All left Germany in the 1930s and found sanctuary in London.

Isokon Building, London - March 2023

Modernism was an artistic movement that emerged towards the end of the 19th century and developed to its influential maturity through the first three decades of the 20th century. Its practitioners sought to address societal and cultural shifts in response to the then emerging modern industrial world. Later, it was also seen as a reaction to the brutalism and horrors of the Great War.

Lawn Road Flats, ‘The Isokon’, London NW3

Officially named ‘The Lawn Road Flats’, the Isokon was the first modernist building in Britain to embrace ideas for minimalist city living. Agatha Christie owned a flat in the Isokon from 1941 to 1947.

Making images of The Isokon remains a challenge - and I am certainly no expert architectural photographer. Lawn Road is not wide enough to offer the photographer a broad vista. Since the 1920s trees have grown and cars are omnipresent. Nevertheless, I think there are ways to convey the industrial essence of this modernist masterpiece and to offer a sense of that briefly optimistic decade before Britain was plunged, first into economic crisis and then war.

For this particular image I decided from the outset that the use of black and white would best complement the minimalist ideas of the Bauhaus movement - straight lines, subtle curves and deep shadows. Moreover, the Isokon Building is constructed in pure black and white. I therefore decided to adopt a high contrast approach to make an image that has turned the three-dimensional building into a stark, two-dimensional image - I hope an homage to modernism and to László Moholy-Nagy in particular.

Normally, I dislike overly contrasty black and white images, although they are once again in vogue. However, I think that in this instance the extremes of light and shade enhance the image, emphasising the key modernist elements of elegant simplicity that make the Isokon Building the architectural draw that it remains today.