Ezra Stoller (16 May 1915 — 29 October 2004) was an American architectural photographer, born in Chicago.
Stoller studied to be an architect at New York University in 1938, but while a student he began making lantern slides and photographs of architectural models, drawings and sculpture. From this time he concentrated on photographing architectural landmarks such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, and Alvar Aalto's Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
There is a critic said that “no moder building is complete until it is ‘stollerized’”. BUT I want to say that “no stollerized modern building is complete”
Ezra Stoller said: 'While I cannot make a bad building good, I can draw out the strengths in a work that has strength, but I never claimed my work is art. The art is the architecture'. So I think it is more advisable to comment his work through an Architecture angle rather than a photography angle.
First, I want to cite the definition of modernism architecture from Wikipedia:
Modern architecture, not to be confused with 'contemporary architecture', is a term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament. While the style was conceived early in the 20th century and heavily promoted by a few architects, architectural educators and exhibits, very few Modern buildings were built in the first half of the century. For three decades after the Second World War, however, it became the dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate building.
We can detect the a part of characteristics of modernism architecture through reading Ezra Stoller’s photography, for example the rejection of ornament, the simplification of form and elimination of "unnecessary detail", the adoption of expressed structure.
But I think two core characteristic of modernism architecture are ignored in his photos.
1: the ignoring of architecture’s function
In the Modernism Architecture concept, building is a living machine. Therefore function of a building is much more important than its shape or form. But, in his works, he just show the buildings’ external aesthetic aspects, such as the changing of abstract lines, the contrast of volume and the texture of materials. But we can not see how people live in it and use it. Those buildings just like huge sculptures without any function and reject people to get in.
2: the ignoring of the motion in the buildings.
I think the modernism architects are very care about the people’s moving in the building and those functional, visual, and psychological changing during the moving. However, the builds appeared in his works show a stable, balance and dead scene rather than a flexible, and kinetic scene.
He partly represented Modernism Architecture, but I do not think photography is a right medium to represent that kind of buildings. They can mislead viewers to understand the Modernism Architecture.
So that is why I say that “no stollerized modern building is complete”.
1 comment:
Ezra Stoller is the one of most important photographers. He gained fame as an architectural photographer, who photographed 20th-century architecture. Before I researched Ezra Stoller, I did not know his fame and works. In Danzinger Projects website, I could see his attractive works, which are elegant black and white images with strong contrast. At first time, I thought his photographs are just landscapes of the city but his works have all elements of photograph with controlled the space, light, texture and time. I can feel not only the stability of modernism by well designed line and composition, but also the rhythm through the shapes of the cars and architecture. Especially, most works of Ezra Stoller contain cars in the bottom that make his photographs more activity. In his work, the familiar architect have special atmosphere by unique black-white images. I am really interested about his expression and I can strongly mention his mid-20th architect photographs is art even though he never claimed “my work is art.”
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