Bad Language
Bad Language
Max Creasy’s photographic exhibition Bad Language explores the relationship between the snapshot and architecture. Collaborating with group of architects and practices established in the past two decades – Kastler Skjeseth, Takeshi Hayatsu, OMMX, Sauter von Moos, Weyell Zipse and Lütjens Padmanabhan – Max Creasy investigates the idiosyncratic, humane, and humorous sensibilities (and possibilities) of the architectural image.
Creasy’s architectural photography has moved away from the formal nature of ‘New Objective’ photography (characterised by clinical documentary views) towards an idiosyncratic language that uses the ‘snapshot’ to explore the vernacular aspects of photography and architecture. This use of the snapshot within architectural photography can be considered a form of ‘bad language’ as it goes against polished and established architectural codes.
The creative team behind the exhibition includes photographer Max Creasy, curator Guillermo Fernández-Abascal and graphic designer Wayne Daly. It is accompanied by a handout containing an essay by architectural historian Frida Grahn which delves into the historic and contemporary links between the AA and ETH Zurich (Switzerland).
The exhibition is supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK.
26 September 2025 - 6 December 2025
Time
10am–6pm
Location
AA Front Members' Room and Bar, 36 Bedford Square
Biographies
Max Creasy's photographic practice explores the vernacular and everyday in the urban environment. His work has been widely exhibited including the National Museum, Oslo, Norway (2023) and POST Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2024), as well as at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne and the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Recent publications include How Things Look (InOtherWords, 2024) and In Miami in the 1980s: The Vanishing Architecture of a ‘Paradise Lost’ (König Books, 2022).
Guillermo Fernández-Abascal is a Practice Fellow at the University of Sydney and cofounder of the office GFA2 (Gabriel and Guillermo Fernández-Abascal). His recent work destabilises the dichotomy between research and buildings and his projects include the books Regional Bureaucracy (Perimeter Editions, 2022) and Analogue Images(Perimeter Editions, 2024); the Enaire Foundation building in Santander, and the Murrin Bridge Preschool and Community Hub in regional NSW.
Wayne Daly is a graphic designer and codirector of Daly & Lyon. Previously he worked as lead graphic designer in the AA Print Studio and his recent projects include the design for the Herzog & de Meuron exhibition (Royal Academy of Arts, 2023), exhibition and catalogue design for The Imaginary Institution of India (Barbican Art Gallery, 2024) and Superposition magazine (2020- ongoing). He is currently a visiting professor on the MA Type Design programme at École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL).
Frida Grahn is an architectural historian and writer whose work examines how architectural ideas travel, adapt and shape practice across borders. She holds a PhD from USI Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio, and degrees from ETH Zurich and Chalmers University. Frida is the editor of Denise Scott Brown: In Other Eyes – Portraits of an Architect (Birkhäuser, 2022) and convened its accompanying symposium at Yale School of Architecture in 2023.
Accessibility
Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these by emailing publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk. Please note that there is no step-free access to the first floor, where this exhibition is on display.
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