Ezra Stoller

Early life

Stoller was born in Chicago, Illinois, but was raised and schooled in New York. His interest in photography began while he was an architecture student at New York University, when he began making lantern slides and photographs of architectural models, drawings and sculpture. After his graduation in 1938, with a BFA in Industrial Design, he concentrated on photography.

Career

Stoller worked with the photographer Paul Strand in the Office of emergency management in 1940/1. He was drafted in 1942 and deployed at the Army Signal Corps Photo Center where he taught photography. Concurrent with his work at the Signal Corp, he served on the editorial board and is listed as part owner of the newly launched (1941) architecture journal, Task from 1943 to 1945.

After WW2 he resumed work as an architectural photographer and worked with the leading architects of the day. His work featured landmarks of modern architecture, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, Alvar Aalto's Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and Eero Saarinen's last project Bell Labs Holmdel Complex. Stoller is often cited in aiding the spread of the Modern Movement. Among architects, his name was sometimes used as a verb; to have a design “Stollerized” was seen as a great honour.

In 1961, he was the first recipient of a Gold Medal for Photography from the American Institute of Architects and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Pratt Institute in 1998. Photographs are featured in the books Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller and Ezra Stoller, Photographer. His work was published in Architectural Record, Architectural Forum, Fortune, House & Garden, and House Beautiful, amongst other magazines and his photographs appeared in many books. Works by Stoller are held in various collections, for example, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and photographs attributed to Stoller are held in the Conway Library at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects programme.

In the 1960s Stoller founded Esto Photographics, a commercial photography firm that was run by his daughter Erica Stoller, until it was sold to an employee in the early 2020s. Stoller's son Evan Stoller is an architect and designer of a line of architecturally influenced modern furniture called Stoller Works.

Death

He died in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on 29 October 2004, from complications of a stroke.

Exhibitions

;Solo exhibits

:Max Protetch Gallery, New York, 1980 :James Danziger Gallery, New York, 1998 :James Danziger Gallery, New York, 1999 :Rolf Ricke Gallery, Cologne, 2000 :Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, New York, 2001 :Henry Urbach Architecture Gallery, New York, 2002 :Henry Urbach Architecture Gallery, New York, 2004 :Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown MA, 2004 :Danziger Projects, Summer 2007 :Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, 2011

;Group exhibits

:Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal :San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

Selected publications

• The John Hancock Center, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Yasmin Sabina Khan, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 2000,
• The TWA Terminal, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Mark Lamster, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• The Yale Art + Architecture Building, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Philip Nobel, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Neil Levine, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Neil Levine, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• Guggenheim New York, photographs by Ezra Stoller. Guggenheim Bilbao, photographs by Jeff Goldberg, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• The Seagram Building, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Franz Schulze, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• The Salk Institute, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Daniel S. Friedman, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• The United Nations, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Jane C. Loeffler, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• The Chapel of Ronchamp : Le Corbusier's Notre-Dame-du-Haut, photographs by Ezra Stoller; introduction by Eugenia Bell, New York : Princeton Architectural Press, 1999,
• Modern Architecture; Photographs by Ezra Stoller, ed. William Saunders, New York; London : Harry N. Abrams, 1999,
• The Galveston That Was, Howard Barnstone; photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Ezra Stoller; foreword by James Johnson Sweeney; afterword by Peter Brink, College Station; Great Britain : Texas A&M University Press; Houston : Museum of Fine Arts, 1999,

References

References

1. (2020-03-26). "The Dream of Midcentury Modern in Black and White Photos".
2. "Ezra Stoller".
3. "AIArchitect, November 15, 2004 - Ezra Stoller, Architect-Photographer, 1915–2004".
4. (Fall 1943). "[Publisher's note]". Task.
5. (Winter 1944–1945). "[Publishers note]". Task.
6. Conway, Richard. (16 Nov 2012). "Recording Modernism: The Work of Ezra Stoller". Time magazine.
7. (2018-11-19). "Ezra Stoller: Pioneers of American Modernism {{!}} MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine".
8. "Stoller, Ezra".
9. "Ezra Stoller".
10. (2020-06-30). "Who made the Conway Library?".
11. "Evan Stoller".
12. (4 November 2004). "Ezra Stoller, 89; Made Classic Photos of Buildings by Leading Architects". [[Los Angeles Times]].
13. Stoller, Ezra. "Ezra Stoller". Esto.
14. (6 January 2011). "Now Showing {{!}} Ezra Stoller". [[The New York Times]].
15. "Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture".
16. "Phyllis Lambert: 75 Years At Work".