bio
Nate Umstead is a photographer who specializes in making images of architecture and art installations. His unique perspective and approach derives from years of passionately studying and practicing architecture. Nate's photographs are inherently influenced by the creation of countless paper models, digital renderings, construction details, and by observing the world around him. They are compositions of space that document the built environment, and a medium for telling stories through graphic and visual communication.
Nate holds a bachelors and masters degree from the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. Between photographic commissions, he works as an architect at Integrated Architecture in Grand Rapids, MI. He is married to Vanessa, who graciously - and gracefully - tags along on his architectural site-seeing excursions.
In 2008, Nate began collaborating with artist/curator Paul Amenta to document the raw spaces, installations, and events that made up his Activesite and SiTE:LAB projects. This relationship, and the takeoff of Grand Rapids' annual ArtPrize competition, facilitated Nate's explorations into photographing art with an architectural bent.
The way he sees it, architecture is in everything.
publications
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“when I think about architecture, images come to mind. many of these images are connected with my training and work as an architect. they contain the professional knowledge about architecture that I have gathered over the years. some of the other images have to do with my childhood. there was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it”