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Jessica Caplan

MANY  CITY DWELLERS rarely take time to  look at the buildings around them.  Elizabeth Gill Lui, on the other hand, has made a career out of doing just that.

The Los Angeles-based fine-arts photographer, who studied architectural photography at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, has devoted much of her life's work to  architecture.

During the past 25 years,  she  has   travelled the world, capturing the essence of buildings in images.

Her  latest exhibition, Three's a Charm: Photography of Chinese Traditional Architecture, which opens  on Monday, will present the fruits of her travels during the past decade to villages in southeast China.

It features   photographs, images mounted on traditional Chinese scrolls and a  collection of multiple image collages of landscapes people and architecture.

Lui, 55, began  travelling to China in 1995, when  Ho Puay Peng,  a professor in the Chinese University's department of architecture, invited her to join an annual class field trip to southeast China  to study and  record traditional  architecture.

Despite freezing temperatures - Ho's trips   took place during   winter holidays - and sometimes gruelling conditions, Lui  kept returning.

Five more excursions and more than  a decade later, Lui has  made her way to such far-flung towns as Xiamen,  Hangzhou,  Hukeng, Longmen,   Shaoxing,   Zili and Meipo. 'I look at China, and I'm curious and appreciative,' says Lui,  an artist-in-residence  at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's department of architecture on an Asian Cultural Council-sponsored programme.

'I see a natural beauty in its architecture that's  quite sublime. There's a sort of Zen quality to many of these environments that gives me a great sense of peacefulness  when I'm shooting.'

Lui uses a 4x5 large-format camera, essential for photographing architecture because it allows more detail and accuracy and eliminates the distortion caused by a 35mm lens. The  opposite of point-and-shoot, every shot is set up meticulously. 'I'm a very calm, methodical photographer,' says Lui.

Although she has been labelled  an 'architectural photographer',  Lui prefers to call herself a 'visual philosopher' or 'a conceptual artist who chooses photography as her medium'.

'I'm interested in the abstract way of looking at architecture,' she says. 'I'm interested in the meaning and sociology - the building as symbol, not object.'

Lui's passion for photographing  bricks and mortar was born out  of a fascination with minimalist, geometric images. She soon cultivated a deep appreciation for the power of architecture.

'Architecture is the ultimate combination of aesthetics, technology, science and man's abilities in the 20th century,' says Lui, who also has a background in philosophy.

The realisation that  many people are what she calls architecturally illiterate and separated from their built environment further  fuelled Lui's drive to photograph buildings. 'I made a commitment in my art to look at architecture as a subject, to contribute to architecture literacy,' she says.

Among the books Lui has published  are Closed Mondays,  which celebrates the finest of 20th-century art museums, and her  latest, Building Diplomacy, which delves into the role of architecture in diplomatic relations. The ambitious project took Lui and her filmmaker daughter to 52 countries in two years to photograph and record  US  embassies.

Perhaps her most politically charged work to date, it explores Lui's theory of the building as symbol and made her 'a vociferous advocate of the non-violent resolution of conflict'.

Lui says her impetus for photographing traditional Chinese architecture  during the past 11 years wasn't  clear-cut. 'China's an enigma.  I often ask  myself, 'Why am I here? Why am I  trying to make sense of it?' There are so many forces at work in China, so it's not easy to get a clear picture. I usually come up with more questions than answers.'

What struck Lui most during her travels were surreal images depicting the  collision of the ancient and modern worlds and foretelling imminent change: a  new Japanese motorcycle  beside a rickshaw, satellite dishes dotting the roofs of traditional homes, an internet cafe  seemingly out of place in the midst of a village.

Lui also developed a deep respect for the people  who live in   the  villages. 'I'm  interested in indigenous cultures, and the traditional villages we visited fall into that category,' she says. 'They are site-specific people, so there's an organic connection between the way people live, who they are, the environment they built  and how that has  persisted.

'We need diversity  to maintain the health of the human race,  so I respect the knowledge these ancient people have. As a photographer, I'm intrigued in recording that [knowledge] and preserving images of that to the best of my ability, even though things are changing so fast.'

Lui describes herself as a 'voyeur who respects the realities I see,  not with critical judgment but with acceptance'. She says she couldn't help but observe the disrepair of historic relics  and  wood furniture,  a  result of the Cultural Revolution, which  devalued the country's past.  'If I was  saddened by anything, it was that,' she says. 'I wanted to get out a dust cloth and  oil the wood.'

Lui hopes  the photographs  will leave an impression on Chinese viewers. 'If my work  draws attention to the beauty, the importance, even the decay of these environments, it will hopefully reawaken the awareness of how important this heritage is.  I hope to contribute to making a record of a fast-changing culture.'

Three's a Charm: Photography of Chinese Traditional Architecture, Mar 27-Apr 26, Mon-Sun 10am-7pm, UMA G, G/F, 12 St Francis St, Wan Chai, tel: 2528 3669;  Sau Wa Fong Gallery (by appointment), 18 Sau Wa Fong, Wan Chai, tel: 2804 2222



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