This Week's Focus: Francesco Russo | World Photography Organisation

Francesco Russo is a photographer based in London and Venice who specialises in architecture, interior design and the built environment. Striving to produce simple but bold and striking images to illustrate the work of architects and designers, he takes over our Instagram for the week for This Week's Focus.

He'll be sharing a selection from his portfolio, including work from his personal project Ruin or Rust, which looks at the beauty of redundant gasometer structures in the UK's capital. 

Your project Ruin or Rust is featured on our Instagram account for the week. Tell us more about this series, what attracted you to the gasometers in London?

Since I studied Architecture at university I always had a great interest in industrial architecture. My research was largely based on the opportunities available to redevelop and give a new purpose to industrial buildings while maintaining their character and identity.

When I moved to London I recognised in the gasholders the symbol of the Victorian industrial era and when I found that there’s an ongoing process of demolition of most of these structures, I decided to start a series documenting them.

There are currently around 20 gasholders remaining in the Greater London area. Over the last two centuries, they’ve become the backdrop of everyday life as well as standout elements in the capital’s urban landscape.

The series is called Ruin or Rust because with my work I want to put forward a question to the public: are these structures ruins, in the romantic sense of the ruins depicted by the painters of the Picturesque art movement of the 18th century, or they are just rust that deserves to be demolished and replaced with new developments? My goal is to document their presence and investigate their role and integration in contemporary society and the urban fabric. 
 
You are one of the founders of Mass Collective, ‘a collective of photographers documenting the built environment.’ How has being part of a creative community influenced your work?

I decided to start Mass Collective in 2019 with Henry Woide and Luca Piffaretti. We gathered a small group of photographers to create a space where we could meet and discuss architectural photography in London. The group has grown very quickly and now we are connected with about 100 London-based photographers who document the built environment. We’re also in touch with many other photographers around the world. This quick growth shows the need for photographers to be part of a community because most of the time we work individually and don’t get the opportunity to share our experiences with like-minded professionals.

Being connected to such a dynamic and creative community is certainly influencing my work both on the creative and business side. I’d encourage the photographers out there committed to the documentation of the built environment to get in touch with us.

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Source: This Week's Focus: Francesco Russo | World Photography Organisation