Ezra StollerTWA Terminal at Idlewild (now JFK) Airport, Eero Saarinen, New York, NY1962
1962
About the Item
- Creator:Ezra Stoller (1915 - 2004, American)
- Creation Year:1962
- Dimensions:Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Edition of 20.
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: G130805220104
Ezra Stoller
Ezra Stoller had such a profound impact on the field of modern architectural photography that his name became a verb. Famous architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen and Marcel Breuer saw their buildings “Stollerized” — a word coined by none other than Philip Johnson, denoting expertly reimagined for the flat space of the photograph and made accessible to readers of books and magazines who could not visit them in person.
Stoller’s mostly black-and-white photographs play up the most exciting features of 20th-century landmarks: the swooping curves of Saarinen’s TWA Terminal (1962), the radical transparency of Johnson’s Glass House (1949), the monolithic gravitas of the United Nations Building (1950). As the photographer once said, “While I cannot make a bad building good, I can draw out the strengths in a work that has strength.”
Although he didn’t have an architecture degree, Stoller, who died in 2004 at age 89, very nearly joined the profession. He was enrolled in architecture school at New York University when he began taking photographs in the late 1930s. This side project soon became a full-time career, as his classmates and professors (including Edward Durell Stone) started giving him assignments.
By 1946, he was traveling around the country documenting major projects for Fortune magazine, including Wright’s Taliesin West, in Scottsdale, Arizona. This was the beginning of a long association with Wright, who later commissioned Stoller to shoot the Guggenheim Museum and the house perched above a waterfall known as Fallingwater.
Stoller had an equally symbiotic relationship with Saarinen, capturing many of the low-slung, boxy structures the Finnish architect designed for Midwestern corporate campuses, as well as his more fanciful TWA Terminal at Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), in New York.
For someone so strongly aligned with modern architecture, Stoller acknowledged some surprising historical influences. One was the visionary 18th-century printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who, like Stoller, trained in architecture. Another was the late-19th-century photographer Eugene Atget, who documented the streets and storefronts of Paris during a major upheaval in urban planning.
“For getting a sense of space, there’s nobody like Atget,” Stoller once told an interviewer.
In addition to Stoller’s artistry, architects appreciated his meticulous multistage process. Typically, he would start with a daylong walk-through of a project, after which he formulated a detailed shooting plan — annotating images of the building with arrows and times of day and paying close attention to the weather and changing light.
Once onsite with his equipment, Stoller would rearrange the furniture to achieve the perfect shot and obsess, as he later recalled, over such questions as “at exactly what angle should the window be open.”
Find original Ezra Stoller photography on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Sunburned GSP#628 (Pacific Ocean)By Chris McCawLocated in New York, NYChris McCaw builds his own large-format cameras and outfits them with powerful lenses for his "Sunburned" series. Instead of film, McCaw inserts expired vintage, fiber-based gelatin ...Category
2010s Black and White Photography
MaterialsPhotographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
- United NationsBy Ezra StollerLocated in New York, NYFull title: United Nations, International Team of Architects Led by Wallace K. Harrison, New York, NY Ezra Stoller (American, 1915-2004) is known as ...Category
1950s Modern Black and White Photography
- Splitting #2 (Salton City and Brisbane Valley)By Mark RuwedelLocated in New York, NYMark Ruwedel's photographs of abandoned houses, temporary shelters and unfinished housing developments in the American Southwest, reduce the “home” to the most basic of shelters, isolated by wasteland. In the tradition of the New Topographics...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Landscape Photography
- John Hancock Building, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chicago, ILBy Ezra StollerLocated in New York, NYEzra Stoller (American, 1915-2004) is known as one of the most influential photographers of modern architecture. He created iconic photographs of mid-century buildings that help defi...Category
1970s Black and White Photography
- Glass House, Philip Johnson, New Canaan, CTBy Ezra StollerLocated in New York, NYEzra Stoller (American, 1915-2004) is known as one of the most influential photographers of modern architecture. He created iconic photographs of mid-century buildings that help defi...Category
1940s Black and White Photography
- Sunburned GSP#871 (Great Salt Lake, Utah)By Chris McCawLocated in New York, NYSunburned GSP#871 (Great Salt Lake, Utah), 2015 Gelatin Silver Paper Negative Unique 12" x 20" (30.5 x 51 cm) Framed: 15 5/16" x 23 15/16" (39 x 59 cm) Chris McCaw builds his own l...Category
2010s Landscape Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin, Photographic Paper
- Slim Aarons Limited Estate Print - Jamaica Sea Sailing - OversizeBy Slim AaronsLocated in London, GBJamaica Sea Sailing Two men sailing their yacht ‘Eel II’ in Jamaica. Slim Aarons silver gelatine fibre based print Printed 2024 Slim Aarons Estate Edition Produced utilising the...Category
1950s Modern Landscape Photography
MaterialsBlack and White, Silver Gelatin
- Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Stanley Twardowicz Venice Italy Gondola PhotoBy Stanley TwardowiczLocated in Surfside, FLBlack & white vintage photo of Venice Italy in 1952 by American Abstract Expressionism artist Stanley Twardowicz (1917-2008). It depicts a reflection...Category
1950s American Modern Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Venice, Waterfront, Gondolas, Black and White, Italy, 1950s, 13 x 17, 9 cmBy Erich AndresLocated in Cologne, DESilver Gelatine Print by Erich Andres, ca 1950. Andres was born 1905 in Germany and passed away 1992. He started his career as a photographer in 1920. He was one of the first photogr...Category
1950s Modern Black and White Photography
MaterialsBlack and White, Silver Gelatin
- New York and the East River, 1975 Silver Gelatin Black and White PhotographyLocated in Atlanta, GAAn original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Poly-Press, Bonn, Germany. A view of Manhattan and the East River, circa 1975. Features: Original silver gelatin print photog...Category
1970s Modern Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- A busy Diner in New York, 1950 Silver Gelatin Black and White PhotographyLocated in Atlanta, GAAn original silver gelatin black and white photograph by Graphic House Inc, New York, and Atlantic Press, Paris. A busy diner in New York, circa 1950. Features: Original silver gelat...Category
1950s Modern Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin
- Andres: Ruhr area, near Recklinghausen, Germany 1954By Erich AndresLocated in Cologne, DESilver Gelatine Print by Erich Andres, 1954. Andres was born 1905 in Germany and passed away 1992. He started his career as a photographer in 1920. He was one of the first photograph...Category
1950s Modern Black and White Photography
MaterialsSilver Gelatin