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- Japanese Teahouse
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- English Garden Folly
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- Roadside Industrial
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- Pavilion Modern
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- Prairie Vernacular
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- Form Follows Function
Lee Cott
Architecture Nevertheless
My interest in photography began alongside my commitment to architecture and now, after a career as a practicing architect, photography is with me again. Not surprisingly, I am drawn to buildings as subject matter and particularly to those not touched by the hand of an architect. I enjoy photographing these buildings, which are usually regarded as unremarkable but I think possess a raw elegance.
The fruit and vegetable stands that dot the roadsides throughout New England are good examples of this vernacular. At one time these simple structures were ubiquitous upon the rural landscape but now seem to be fading away as fewer families are interested in growing produce for sale in their backyards.
Broad roof cantilevers, slatted walls, post and beam construction, gridded windows, applied decoration and latticework are illustrative of the care given by their owners and builders. This is an informal architecture; an architecture without architects; buildings without a pedigree; but architecture nevertheless.
Artist Bio
Lee Cott studied architecture at Pratt Institute and Harvard University. After a career as a practicing architect and professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Lee has chosen to devote his creative energies to his love of photography. His photographic images, seen through the eyes of an architect, strive to portray the unique beauty in the ordinary and conventional.
Lee has photographed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. Images from his early travel portfolio, Prairie Vernacular, were published in Design and Environment magazine. He has lectured on architecture and urban design at Harvard University, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Peabody Essex Museum and The Boston Public Library using his private collection of color photo images made over the course of his lifetime. He has exhibited at juried shows at the Concord Art Association and the Chautauqua Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art as well as the Griffin Museum. Lee has studied at the New England School of Photography and Atelier 28 at the Griffin Museum.
Contact Lee Cott