Ezra Stoller

 Last Thursday Steve suggested that I take a look at Ezra Stoller as an example of a highly influential architectural photographer.

Ezra Stoller, architectural photographer, was born on May 16, 1915, He died on October 29, 2004, aged 89.  His full obituary can be found here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article391853.ece

The first para says it all really:

EZRA STOLLER was the American architectural photographer whose memorable photographs of buildings by the 20th century’s leading designers popularised architecture for a whole generation. His striking black and white photographs, which are among the world’s most frequently reproduced architectural images, played a key role in the shaping of public perceptions of modern architecture. 

 www.timesonline.co.uk



Ezra Stoller, architectural photographer,  1915 - 2004

Many of the images taken by Stoller are very striking images of modernist style buildings, typified by clean strong lines.  At first glance the images look almost simple.

Reading through various articles about Stoller it becomes apparent that he took great care to plan the images that he took.  He would visit sites many times to explore the site itself, how it reacted to the light at differing times of day and as can be seen in this image how the building reacted with shade and shadow.

The image above is one of the few that had a person in it.  Then you realise that this is also planned, as without the person there is nothing to judge scale.  As you start to deconstruct the initial simplicity you see the adoption of rule of thirds, both horizontally and vertically, triangles, stripes, reflection, shadow, shade; all of a sudden it becomes less simple.

Whorls into an abstract form: A 1959 photograph by Ezra Stoller of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum.

TWA Terminal, New York, 1962

Why / how it this strong style appropriate to my theme of community buildings that cover so many periods of architecture?  As I look deeper, past the commonly occuring images the light begins to dawn.

This image from an earlier post has some similarities in perspective and composition, but is also a world away.  Need to reflect more on shadow, use of light and reflection and how they can emphasise different aspects of the subject.

Use of shadow to focus the eye adds real depth to this image.  There is incredible depth of field with both foreground and background remaining sharpe, but destinct. 

Bell wharehouse - How do you make a box interesting?  Add foreground, perspective and blocks of colour.

Although this is removed from many of the images I was able to find, taken by Stoller, this and the the folllowing image have made me think more about my theme.

Graham House, 1962

This is very different from many Stoller images -still the modern architecture, but the setting becomes almost as important.

And finally.................

While  looking for images taken bt Syoller I came accross this image by Balthazar Korab