 How's it? Today we're going to look at an architectural photographer whose images are now considered to be part of the history of modern architecture in the United States. Now if all of that sounds a little bit, well dull then stick with me because we're going to see that architectural photography actually has some real lessons that can be employed in your photography no matter what genre that you use. As a spotty teenager I amongst other things wanted to be an architect. There was something about it that just really kind of that appealed to me probably it was the the structure in terms of like there are actual structures about how you you do things and that you know it seemed to invite me in but my maths was so appalling that photography beckoned instead because their bar for entry was let's say considerably lower right so they I went and took up you know a camera instead and over the years the love of architecture has always stayed with me in fact to this day I still photograph predominantly architectural forms shape what have you but in a very more relaxed abstract way than Ezra Stoller Ezra Stoller's photography is precise it is gorgeous it it understands exactly what the architect is trying to convey and about how they want people to experience their buildings now at this point in a lot of videos about a specific photographer you could then start looking at their biography and this is a great example of why I feel certain sections in photography make it difficult for people with just a passing interest to get excited about a particular photographer and I'm going to read you an excerpt from Ezra Stoller's website Ezra Stoller was born in Chicago in 1915 grew up in New York and studied architecture NYU as a student he began photographing buildings and there's a spelling mistake there that's why stumbled buildings models and sculpture in 1938 he graduated with a bfa in industrial design in 1940 1941 Stoller worked with a photographer Paul Strand in the office of emergency management and it goes on like this for a number of paragraphs how is that going to excite you about finding out more about this photographer whose images I find fascinating from a technical perspective from that aesthetic perspective but also giving us an insight into the world of the modernist building and I'm going to use the word modernist it may not be the correct term specifically for all of these stars of architecture but bear with me okay and if you really take umbrage let me know in the comments so Stoller was lucky enough to inhabit a world that was always inhabited by people like Frank Lloyd Wright and Volta Gropius and people who were creating buildings that were so radically different to what was the current norm and Stoller to his credit I feel photographs them sympathetically probably because of his background you know that he started off photographing the architectural models when he was a student and this is sort of you know carried on these guys from the models to to the buildings themselves it's worth bearing in mind when you think about this kind of architecture that the houses were designed not just as the house and all the interior was just like whatever right the same with the building stuff everything was designed so when you look at Stoller's work he is photographing not just the house itself but you know the the the details inside the house the way that the whole thing is designed specifically and not in a sterile kind of dispassionate way but in a way that invites you the viewer if you like this kind of architecture to say wouldn't you love this wouldn't you love to live in this house or work in this environment or visit this wonderful terminal the JFK photographs that speak to a world that was moving forward the era the jet age was upon us doesn't this seem exciting don't these photographs capture the very the essence the zim in the zip in the zam of of that building in new york that was acting as a gateway to the modern age this is a prime example of how in your photography you need to be mindful you need to be connected you need to be engaged with the thing that you're photographing to realize that it isn't just a collection of abstract shapes but there's often especially in the case of architectural photography a purpose behind it is to showcase not just the architect's vision in a very sterile way but to make it something that people want to look at to enjoy that's why books such as this as restorer exist because they are wonderful images that have an aesthetic quality to them that i certainly find absolutely engaging earlier i used that quote about you know how ezra stoller is like the the you know an icon in the history of the modern american architecture scene and i really enjoy all of his photography didn't just do architecture he also did some other you know some more industrial design kind of images as well that also appeal to me but it's interesting to see what happens when a photographer who is so skilled so proficient that one particular thing strays off of that path and i'm talking about the images from machu Picchu there is something about these photographs that i just can't quite put my finger on that they are completely well bland i think this is this the the danger with a lot of you know great photographers is that sometimes they are great in one particular area and in ezra's case of architectural slash industrial design photography and this doesn't translate into something else and in this case it's those images of machu Picchu these images are that exception to the rules that says you know sort of the good photographers are proficient at any sort of genre so if you are struggling with something and it's not quite panning out whatever then you know take heart in the fact that somebody who is even as successful you know as ezra stoller just wasn't happening now there is an elephant in the room when we talk about ezra stoller there is another voice because stoller was the east coast kid you know it's all new york and jfk and stuff like that but then you have julius shulman who's all california was all west coast doing similar images but kind of i don't know making them feel a little bit more juge a little bit more modern there's the people tend to focus certain the images that in my mind that pop out are these ideas of people actually inhabiting these places and in many respects they have more of a kind of a madmen sort of vibe about them probably because you can see these people there is a paragraph on stoller's website that says that many modern buildings are recognized and remembered by the pictures that ezra stoller had taken and i think this is a wonderful idea about how you know you can't carry a building around with you you can't just go off and say look i brought the empire state building with me isn't that nice right you just you can't do that but you can of course create images and just as much as the celebrity photographers have created iconic photographs of people that have stayed with us so when we think about those people that's the image that is burnt into our minds i think it's wonderful that we have stoller and shulman to thank for capturing these iconic buildings of creating them in a way you know an image in the way that can stay inside our minds so rather than having just drab run-of-the-mill documented images of these these buildings and these homes and these offices and these spaces he's created something that has that power to stay with us in our photography it's often tricky to know where our influencers are coming from and i wondered why i was interested in architecture and then subsequent architectural photography and then you know ideas about graphics and and geometric shapes and forms in photography and it was only when i returned to the uk after many years away and i went to ikea in melton keens where i'd grown up or nearby melton keens as a child in the in the late 70s then it dawned on me that this new town that was built from basically a collection of small villages and had loads of modernist and brutalist buildings dumped on it had shaped the way that i saw buildings it was like a penny dropped it was it was like wow okay this is where it comes from so if you are struggling for ideas about where to find your voice about to find what really moves you in photography watch this video that i've got over here when it talks about you know finding the why within you and once you get back to that why then you're going to reconnect with your photography thank you ever so much for watching and i will see you again soon