The thematic scope here is confined to auteur architecture; while conscious of the reductive nature of this category, in appearance at least, it is nevertheless my conviction that this highly specific limitation of the subject serves in fact as a kind of inductor or poetic catalyst, by virtue of the density as sign attaching to it. In this sense, it is no accident that the photographic recreation of the exteriors and interiors of exceptional buildings should be an increasingly habitual practice on the part of creative artists, and that visual artists should frequently collaborate with architects. On the other hand, there is probably no better metaphor for modernity and its historical avatars than these celebrated works of architecture.