Adam Štěch has every architecture-lover’s dream job. The Prague-based magazine editor, curator and design historian spends a portion of each year traveling the globe, photographing 20th-century architecture – both celebrated icons and little-known gems – and posting the images on Instagram (@okolo_architecture). Over the years, he has taken more than 150,000 photos documenting over 10,000 buildings across 40 countries.
Some of these buildings are open to the public, but Štěch also makes direct contact with residents to gain access to private spaces. “I write emails and messages via social media, but often I have to send analogue letters by post, without a name, because the only thing I know is the address,” he says, speaking from a wood-paneled bar in the Czech capital. His followers appreciate this unique access, he says, as well as his perspective: “I look at the buildings not as a photographer, but as a historian.”
