Ezra Stoller’s Architectural Photography Brought Modernism to the Masses

Ezra Stoller documented some of the most famous buildings of the 20th century, among them Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, and Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal. The renowned architectural photographer’s work has been widely credited with introducing modernism to the masses in the postwar era. From the late 1930s into the 1980s, Stoller photographed buildings by many of the period’s leading architects, including Mies, Wright, and Saarinen, as well as Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Paul Rudolph, Louis Kahn, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, and others.

Before he earned his reputation as "the photographer who made architects famous," Stoller—born in Chicago in 1915—trained as a draftsman at New York University, where he took photography classes but ultimately graduated with a degree in industrial design in 1938. In the early 1940s, Stoller worked briefly for photographer Paul Strand in the Office of Emergency Management, then was drafted during World War II and taught photography at the Army Signal Corps Photo Center. From the 1950s into the 1980s, Stoller established himself as one of the most in-demand architectural photographers of his generation, alongside only Julius Shulman, who documented California modernism. (Some even called Stoller, who lived in New York, "the East Coast Julius Shulman.")

Using a large-format camera and shooting almost exclusively in black-and-white, Stoller captured modern buildings at precise angles and in precise lighting—skills that earned him the respect of, and commissions from, many leading modernist architects. Philip Johnson once said that no modern building is complete until it has been "Stollerized." Meanwhile, architectural critic Paul Goldberger wrote that Stoller’s photographs "in and of themselves played a major role in shaping the public’s perception of what modern architecture is all about."

Stoller’s work was also featured in publications such as Architectural Record, Architectural Forum, House Beautiful, and Fortune. In 1961, he became the first architectural photographer to be awarded a medal for his contributions to the field by the American Institute of Architects. In 1966, Stoller founded Esto, an architectural agency now run by his daughter.

"I see my work in a way that is analogous to a musician given a score to play who must bring it to life and make the piece as good as it can be," Stoller was quoted saying in a brochure for an exhibition of his photographs that was on view at the Williams College of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he’d been living, when he died at 89 on October 29, 2004. "While I cannot make a bad building good, I can draw out the strengths in a work that has strength."

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Top photo courtesy Carnegie Museum of Art, © Ezra Stoller/Esto, Yossi Milo Gallery

This article was originally published on April 16, 2014. It was updated on October 29, 2024, to include current information.

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