It’s impossible to talk about architectural photography today without mentioning Iwan Baan. Although he only started working with architecture in 2005, Baan quickly established himself through his images of the Rem Koolhaas-designed CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, and today is the go-to photographer for the world’s leading master builders.

While writing my book, Shooting Space: Architecture in Contemporary Photography, Baan told me: “My work is documentation around the architecture – what people do in the space, where the space is, what the surroundings are. I try to document these types of things. I’m not interested in super-clean shots of the building.” While this may not sound all that radical, the Dutchman has broken the unwritten rules of architectural photography: no people, no ugly context and, certainly, no clouds. 

Baan does not shy away from the social reality of architecture – documenting the relationship of buildings to their wider urban environment – and neither does he limit himself to photographing the newest or most famous constructions. His most powerful work reveals how people have carved out lives for themselves in unexpected places, from the unauthorised inhabitation of the unfinished and abandoned Torre de David (Tower of David) in Caracas to Makoko, a Nigerian city built on water. 

Just a decade into the industry, Baan has created an impressive portfolio of our built world and redefined how we view contemporary architecture.

Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age, curated by Elias Redstone and Alona Pardo, runs to January 11, 2015, at the Barbican Art Gallery, London.