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

Research starts in the pub

I was talking with a friend in the pub today and as the conversation meandered around various things it paused for a time around the background research that I am trying to do for this course.  Composition, perspective, light, my preference for landscapes all were covered including the need to identify individuals who's work I like/appreciate/want to learn from.  In the way that pub conversations do come back to subjects he later suggested that I had a look at Brassai, Caspar David Freidich and Andre Bretton.

First google search for Brassai.
Brassaï (pseudonym of Gyula Halász) (9 September 1899–8 July 1984) was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker.

Although he lived until 1984 most of the images that came up in an image search were black and white from the 1930's.  Immediately struck by several of the images.  All those shown were low light shots.  A mixture of candid people shots and night scenes from Paris.

Particularly taken by the images below.  Very atmospheric.  Taken 70+ years ago yet still incredibly sharp.

Foggy Paris - 1934

This shot is the first image that I found for Brassai, incredibly atmospheric.  Great detail in the trees and bench with the fog blurring much of the rest of the image.  Do you follow the path of the street lamps or the lights of the car first?  Simple street scene or something more?  The various light sources emphasise the fog.

Under one of the Seine Bridges - 1933

Great use of light and absence of light. The light on the bridge enabling details of tree and building to be captured, but the story is in the dark below. Almost completely dark, just the arch allowing some light into the scene with reflection in the river.

Use of thirds and framing in separate elements of the image.

Open Gutter - 1933

Another low light image, but still very sharp.

The eye naturally follows the gutter as it meanders up through the image.

Obelisk and fountains in the

Place de la Concorde   

1933               

The tiered fountain to the left occupies the first third of the image.  Initially the obelisk draws the eye until you start to follow the lines of water.  Long exposure evident from the way that the drops of water have blurred to form a translucent sheet.  Great detail on the statues.

Les Escaliers de Montmartre - 1936

This image is almost counter intuitive, the trees and the first of the lanterns lead your eyes upward, then you realise that he perspective on the steps is actually leading you downward.  There is a real sense of depth with this image.  The lack of people mad the lenght of shadow identify tha this was taken either very early of very late in the day.  I like this image more as I come back to it.



Seville - 1952-53

So what is the story here?  Just stopping for a chat in the street, confession, passing secrets, none of the above?

An Evening with Dennis Morris

http://www.dennismorris.com/

Expectations?

Not sure really.  The flyer that had been handed out was fairly basic.

Come & meet the International

photographer famous for his images of

Bob Marley

The Sex Pistols

Marianne Faithful

Oasis and many more

Wednesday 13th October

At least I had heard of the people that would be in the images - more than that I had listened to some of the music that they had made at the time.  That ages me.

So I turned up to see an exhibition of photographs only to be taken on a journey through time with Dennis Morris.  Not an exhibition then, but a talk that detailed the how and why he had become involved with photography and a potted history of the journey that that had taken him on illustrated with photographs taken at the time.

Throughout the evening Dennis talked in a gentle and entertaining manner, his passion for photography and music shining throughout.

Dennis, mid interview.

We went to see a photographer - the talk / exhibition was more than this it was about the person - his background, growing up, personal influences - part of Black History Month

Dennis displayed a love of reportage. Before this event I had associated this with photojournalism, news reporting, candid images (often from overseas wars) that capture a moment or an event.  So how does this fit with Bob Marley? 

http://www.reportage.org/  describes reportage as the neglected art of storytelling in pictures.  This makes more sense and the evening starts to fall into place.  The images that Dennis displayed do tell a candid story of time and place.  More than just the image of an individual, while listening to the tale these people become more real, memories of the time start to sneak in.

The iconic image from the evening.  Bob Marley in an image that features on record sleeves, news articles at the time and continues to be seen when he is talked about.

For me, though this was one of my favourite images of the evening,  illustrating a relaxed time before everything took off.

This image is from the Bob Marley, a rebel life exhibition.  Not shown on the evening, but one that illustrates the share joy of the time, relaxed, full of life, Bob Marley the person, not the legend.

In an age of digital where you can take 100's of images at little/no cost it's important to remember the that these were taken on cameras that were fully manual, when you could not be sure what you had captured until the image appeared through the chemicals.  When asked about kit ,Dennis gave a strong response that it was mainly about being able to see the image, anticipation developed through an understanding of the subject and some luck in being there.