Hélène Binet

Not to be confused with French Paralympics swimmer, Helene Binet.

Hélène Binet
Born	1959 (age 64–65) Sorengo, Switzerland
Residence	London
Occupation	architectural photographer
Website	www.helenebinet.com

Hélène Binet (born 1959) is a Swiss-French architectural photographer based in London, who is also one of the leading architectural photographers in the world. She is most known for her work with architects Daniel Libeskind, Peter Zumthor and Zaha Hadid, and has published books on works of several architects.

Biography

File:Museum of World Culture Göteborg entrance.jpeg

Museum of World Culture, photographed by Binet.

Hélène Binet was born in 1959 in Sorengo, Switzerland to Swiss and French parents. She studied photography at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, where she grew up. She worked as a photographer at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, an opera house in Geneva, Switzerland, where she photographed various performances for two years, before turning to architectural photography, encouraged by architect, Daniel Libeskind, who believed, " she exposes architecture’s achievements, strength, pathos and fragility."

She has worked with Raoul Bunschoten, Caruso St John, David Chipperfield, Tony Fretton, Zaha Hadid, Zvi Hecker, John Hejduk, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Cook Sauerbruch Hutton, Peter Zumthor, Josef Paul Kleihues and many others, besides publishing books on buildings by Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Sigurd Lewerentz, and Dimitris Pikionis .

She was awarded the Redaksjonell Fotografi from Visuelt, 1997, Wissenschaft fur Leben Scholarship, 2004 from the Olympus Europa Stiftung, Forum AID Award 2006, and Honorary Fellowship of Royal Institute of British Architects, 2008

Hélène Binet is an advocate of analogue photography and therefore she exclusively works with film.

Personal life

Binet had a house on Osea Island in the River Blackwater Estuary in Essex. She is married to Raoul Bunschoten, and the couple lives in London with their two children, Izaak and Saskia Ada. Saskia studies Music at Girton College Cambridge.

Publications

• The Inns of Court. with Jill Allibone, David Evans. Black Dog Publishing Limited, 1996. ISBN 0952177315.
• Helene Binet: Seven Projects, with Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Mark Rappolt, Shine Gallery. Guiding Light, 2002. ISBN 0953845133.
• Photographs. Phaidon Inc. Ltd, 2009. ISBN 0714849421.
• Helene Binet: Composing Space: The Photographs of Helene Binet. Phaidon Press, 2012. ISBN 0714861197.

For architects

• A passage through silence and light, Daniel Libeskind, Raoul Bunschoten. Black Dog Pub., 1997. ISBN 0952177358.
• The House of the Book, Peter Cook, Zvi Hecker, John Hejduk. Black Dog Pub., 1999,
• Architecture of Zaha Hadid in photographs (with Hubertus von Amelunxen), Lars Müller Publishers, 2000.
• Holocaust Mahnmal Berlin: Eisenman Architects, Hanno Rauterberg, Lukas Wassmann. Müller, 2005. ISBN 3037780592.

See also

• Osea Island

External links

• Official website
• Publications by and about Hélène Binet in the catalogue Helveticat of the Swiss National Library