Stephen Citrone
Constructing SpaceThrough photography, I explore the process of constructing space.
I am a UK-registered architect and photographer based outside Oslo, Norway. My work focuses on architecture before completion, when its structure, systems and material logic remain visible.
My interest in architecture began during a childhood visit to Rome. Standing inside the Pantheon and later visiting Vatican City, I remember asking a simple question: how were these structures built? That curiosity about how things are made remains central to my work.
As an architect, I value the entire architectural process, from concept through to completion. The stage I find most compelling is construction, when drawings are translated into materials, structure and craft.
Construction sites reveal architecture in its most direct state. Before finishes are applied and systems concealed, the building’s underlying logic is exposed through its structure, services and envelope. This layered condition can be understood as an internal anatomy, where framework, circulation and surface operate together to give form to space.
Despite the central role of construction in shaping architecture, this stage often remains under-documented. Considerable effort is invested in the design and realisation of buildings, yet many are only recorded once complete, if at all. Images produced during construction are typically functional, informal records made during site visits rather than considered observations of the process itself.
Through photography, I document these transitional moments. Rather than focusing on completed buildings, I am drawn to architecture while it is still exposed and in the process of becoming. Photographing construction can be understood as a form of portraiture, capturing the subject before it is fully composed and presented, rather than at its most resolved.
Taken together, the work traces a cycle of transformation from extraction and erasure to construction, occupation and residual conditions.
The work explores different conditions of structure, systems and the construction of space, examining boundaries and horizons, residual forms, temporary interventions and internal systems.
Architecture and photography have long informed one another in my work. During my diploma studies at the University of North London, drawing, model making and photography were integral to my design process. Earlier influences include the etchings of Rembrandt and Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and the photography of Bill Brandt and Man Ray.
Biography
I moved to Oslo in 2014 to work at the architecture and design practice Snøhetta during a period of significant urban transformation. Following the completion of the Oslo Opera House, regeneration of the Oslofjord waterfront accelerated, marking one of the most active phases of development in the city’s recent history.
Since then, I have independently documented projects including the National Museum of Norway, Deichman Bjørvika Library, the MUNCH Museum and a range of developments across the city, observing architecture during construction and transformation.
In parallel, I have worked with practices including Snøhetta, AL_A, VÅG and Momentum Arkitektur, documenting projects in development. This work has been published online and in architectural publications.
Awards include the Architects’ Journal / Philips Light Shots Short Film Competition and finalist recognition in the Building Design Architects’ Eye Photography Competition. In 2019, I served on the jury for the Archiboo Photography Awards.
I was commissioned by the engineering firm Halcrow Yolles for The Art of Engineering, a photographic project produced for their 50th-anniversary exhibition at the Delfina Foundation, documenting buildings under construction at Canary Wharf.

