BRUTALISM IS THE Yoko Ono of architecture: love it or hate it (and most people land firmly on one side or the other), you can’t deny its power. For Paris-based photographer Pierre Châtel-Innocenti, brutalism’s imposingly utilitarian aesthetic – the sharp angles, the exposed concrete, the unapologetic absence of flourish – is part of what makes it so compelling. His striking photo series Lost Utopias invites us to see some of these mid-century monoliths through a new lens. Châtel-Innocenti talked to Griffith Review about setting social ideals in concrete and finding the beauty in béton brut.

CARODY CULVER: Tell us about your career as an architecture photographer – how did you get into this line of work, and what do you look for in a building when you’re capturing it on camera?