# Modernist architectural photography

> Photographs made to publish and promote modern buildings: glass houses, curtain-wall towers, terminals and their interiors, seen from a chosen oblique corner with every vertical kept parallel by a view camera. Hard or raking sun models the masses; for the signature dusk view the rooms are lit and the glass glows against a darkening sky. Interiors are filled with hidden flash, furniture and plants are arranged, and a few well-dressed figures act out the modern life the building promises. Prints are sharp, clean and mostly black and white, made for magazine pages.

- Period: 1929–1980
- Where it began: Specialist commercial studios that photographed modern buildings for their architects and for magazines
- Kind: Modernist
- Also called: Mid-century architectural photography, Mid-century modern architectural photography
- Page: https://lumogeny.com/styles/modernist-architectural-photography/

## How the look is made

- Keep every vertical vertical: work from a tripod with a view camera, keep the film back plumb and raise the lens with the rising front (or shift) instead of tilting the camera upwards.
- Find the one vantage point that shows the architect's idea most strikingly, usually an oblique corner view with a foreground edge leading in, and stop down so everything from that edge to the horizon is sharp.
- Plan the day around the sun: let hard or raking light model the masses, then come back at dusk with every light switched on so the glass glows against a sky that still holds some light.
- Make interiors look lit by their own fittings: hide flashbulbs or lamps, balance them against the daylight, and expose for minutes or in several passes when one exposure cannot hold the room and the view.
- Stage the life the building promises: arrange the furniture, bring in plants or a branch to frame the view, and place a few well-dressed figures small and at ease in the space.
- Print a clean, full-scale black and white for the magazine page, and let a single picture sell the building.

## How it is lit

- Hard or raking sun, the shoot scheduled around the sun's movement so it skims across facades and throws crisp shadows.
- Interiors filled with hidden flashbulbs or photo lamps, gelled where needed and balanced against the daylight, with windows blacked out between exposures.
- Dusk with every interior and terrace light switched on, the exposure timed or split so the sky still holds some light while the rooms glow.

### A light plan from its choices (schematic)

- Key: the sun, from the camera’s left, at the side, high, hard.
- Fill: a flash on the camera, from the camera, hard.
- Lamp in the scene: a lamp, sign or screen, from the camera’s left, at the side, hard.

## Camera settings

24–60 mm · f/22–f/45 · 0.5 s–7.5 min · ISO 25–100 (on 4x5), inferred. 4 × 5 and 8 × 10 in. view cameras with wide to normal lenses, about 24–60 mm equivalent, stopped to f/22–f/45 for depth, so exposures run from a second to minutes; Shulman's Case Study House #22 was 7.5 minutes with flash inside. Apertures and film speeds are inferred.

## Directing people

Place one to three figures small in the room or on the terrace, well clear of the architecture: seated or lounging in conversation, or standing at the glass with their back to the camera, looking out at the view; relaxed, absorbed in each other, rarely looking at the lens. Leave many views empty; in street views passers-by go by unposed.

## Styling

Everything looks new and spotless: furniture squared up, cushions plumped, surfaces cleared, plants, a branch or a bowl of flowers brought in to frame the view. Figures wear smart dresses or suits, hair groomed. Street exteriors are taken as found, parked cars and passers-by left as they are.

## Before you shoot it

Much of this work is still in copyright, and the archives are held by institutions and agencies (Julius Shulman's at the Getty Research Institute, Hedrich-Blessing's at the Chicago History Museum, Ezra Stoller's at Esto, the agency he founded, and Dell & Wainwright's work for The Architectural Review in the Architectural Press Archive at the RIBA): never prompt by a photographer's name or recreate a known picture. Many of the houses are private homes; a generated image must never be presented as a real building, a property listing or a historical photograph.

## Photographs

- Gottscho-Schleisner, Seagram Building, New York, 1958. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (gsc.5a16908); public domain, placed in the public domain by the photographers' heirs. Shown on the page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seagram_Building._LOC_gsc.5a16908.jpg
- Gottscho-Schleisner, Lever House, 53rd St. and Park Ave., New York City, 1952. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (gsc.5a17254); public domain, placed in the public domain by the photographers' heirs. Shown on the page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lever_House,_53rd_St._and_Park_Ave.,_New_York_City._LOC_gsc.5a17254.jpg
- Gottscho-Schleisner, Herbert F. Johnson, Jr., Wingspread, residence in Racine, Wisconsin, 1939. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (gsc.5a03875); public domain, placed in the public domain by the photographers' heirs. Shown on the page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herbert_F._Johnson,_Jr.,_Wingspread,_residence_in_Racine,_Wisconsin._LOC_gsc.5a03875.jpg
- Julius Shulman, Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960, Pierre Koenig, architect. Gelatin silver print. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Getty Research Institute, 2004.R.10. In copyright. In copyright, linked: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/shulman/casestudy_oz.html
- Ezra Stoller, Mies van der Rohe (with Philip Johnson and Kahn and Jacobs), Seagram Building, New York City, 1958, 1957. Gelatin silver print, 16 × 20 in. SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase, 2004.54. © Esto. In copyright. In copyright, linked: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2004.54/
- Gottscho-Schleisner, United Nations Building, taken from Welfare Island, 1957. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (gsc.5a31093); public domain, placed in the public domain by the photographers' heirs. Shown on the page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_Nations_Building,_taken_from_Welfare_Island._LOC_gsc.5a31093.jpg

## Sources

- Julius Shulman, Photographer of Modernist California Architecture, Dies at 98 (Andy Grundberg, New York Times, 17 July 2009), reprinted by Docomomo US: https://www.docomomo-us.org/news/julius-shulman-photographer-of-modernist-california-architecture-dies-at-98 (postwar commercial architecture photographers working for architects and magazines such as Life, House & Garden and Good Housekeeping; Stoller and Hedrich Blessing as peers; almost always black-and-white film; one of the first to include inhabitants; staged tableaus to promote the idea of casual living; Case Study House Program begun by Arts & Architecture in 1945, Shulman photographed 18 of the 26 built; CSH #22, 1960, two well-dressed women in a living room above the Los Angeles basin; Kaufmann House 1947 at dusk, house, pool and landscape exposed separately, 45 minutes in all; 1936 Neutra start; moved from a Kodak Vest Pocket to a view camera; rented potted plants and a walnut branch on a light stand to frame a tract house; in business full time until the late 1980s, 'when architectural tastes had shifted to postmodernism')
- Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis, Getty Center, 11 October 2005 – 22 January 2006: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/shulman/ (carefully posed models set against streamlined furnishings and breathtaking vistas; the glamour of the California dream; intuitive timing and distinctive camera angles; mass, shadow and light; archive of 260,000 prints, negatives and colour transparencies; his book The Photography of Architecture and Design, 1977)
- Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960, Getty exhibition page: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/shulman/casestudy_oz.html (Pierre Koenig, architect; gelatin silver print; 2004.R.10)
- Growing Up in One of L.A.'s Most Iconic Houses (Amy Hood, Getty News, 19 July 2021): https://www.getty.edu/news/growing-up-in-one-of-los-angeles-most-iconic-houses (a May night in 1960; camera set up beside the pool; a seven-minute exposure of the glass-walled living room, introduced with 'Legend has it'; Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Getty Research Institute, 2004.R.10)
- Framing the image (Architectural Record, August 2009): https://architecturalrecord.com/articles/11249-framing-the-image (CSH #22: lens open on the Los Angeles night for 7.5 minutes with his 4×5 camera while a flash lit two women inside)
- Julius Shulman, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Shulman (1910–2009; Neutra's Kun Residence, 1936; Los Angeles studio 1950; archive acquired by the Getty in 2004)
- Image Maker: Ezra Stoller (Paul Makovsky, Metropolis, 1 December 2012): https://metropolismag.com/programs/image-maker-ezra-stoller/ (about 3,500 projects and 60,000 images; large-format camera, first a Linhof, then an 8×10 camera with black-and-white, daylight and tungsten colour sheet film, lights and cases of flashbulbs; lights gelled and windows blacked out between exposures; shoots planned around weather and the sun; Fortune industrial work of the 1940s; 'Stollerized')
- Ezra Stoller, SFMOMA: https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Ezra_Stoller/ (1915–2004; Seagram Building, Fallingwater, Salk Institute; Philip Johnson's 'Stollerized'; Seagram Building prints of 1957 and 1958 and TWA Terminal 1962 in the collection)
- Ezra Stoller, Mies van der Rohe (with Philip Johnson and Kahn and Jacobs), Seagram Building, New York City, 1958, SFMOMA object page: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2004.54/ (dated 1957; gelatin silver print, 16 × 20 in.; Accessions Committee Fund purchase, 2004.54; © Esto)
- Ezra Stoller, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Stoller (Architectural Record, Architectural Forum, Fortune, House & Garden, House Beautiful; first AIA Gold Medal for Photography, 1961; Esto founded in the 1960s)
- The Dream of Midcentury Modern in Black and White Photos (Mimi Zeiger, Aperture, 26 March 2020): https://aperture.org/editorial/ezra-stoller-midcentury-modern/ (Stoller's postwar photographs of American modern architecture; 'crisp, black-and-white prints'; 'always precise about natural light and time of day'; Shulman's photography 'most immediately comes to mind when thinking about mid-century modern residential architecture')
- Hedrich Blessing Photographers, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedrich_Blessing_Photographers (founded in Chicago in 1929 by Ken Hedrich and Henry Blessing; 'Don't make photographs, think them'; Architectural Forum commission of 1937 for Wright's recent works, photographer not named; Mies, Kahn, Saarinen, SOM; the Chicago History Museum houses the archive of the first 50 years, 1929–1979)
- Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography at Hedrich Blessing, National Building Museum, 2003 (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/20101230040403/http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/hedrich-blessing.html (instead of traditional documentary views, a vantage point from which the architect's design intent was revealed most strikingly; unconventional perspectives, unusual compositions and dramatic lighting; Ken Hedrich, De Soto Pavilion, A Century of Progress, 1933)
- Hedrich-Blessing photograph collection, part 2, 1969–1989 (bulk 1970–1979), Chicago History Museum finding aid (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/2022/http://chsmedia.org/media/fa/fa/1998/hbpt2-inv.htm (negatives and transparencies 8×10 in. and smaller; in the 1970s Bill Engdahl specialised in cityscape and dusk photographs; Bob Harr's emulsion stripping for clients such as Gerald D. Hines Interests combined photographs of models of unbuilt buildings with photographs of their sites, a late sales practice not counted in the genome)
- Samuel H. Gottscho biography, Library of Congress American Memory (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/2012/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/gottscho/gottbio.html (Samuel H. Gottscho, 1875–1971, and William H. Schleisner, 1912–1962; professional at 50; Schleisner joined in 1935)
- Gottscho-Schleisner Collection, rights and restrictions, Library of Congress (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/2015/http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/104_gott.html (in the public domain; placed in the public domain by the heirs of the photographers)
- Samuel Gottscho, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gottscho (photographs in American Architect and Architecture and Architectural Record; about 29,000 images at the Library of Congress)
- The Architectural Review, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architectural_Review (Hubert de Cronin Hastings joint editor from 1927; bold use of layout, typefaces and photographs; leading position in the discourse on Modernism by about 1935)
- Parting shot: Witley Park, near Godalming, Surrey (Valeria Carullo, RIBA Journal, 30 January 2015), archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20250420164621/https://www.ribaj.com/culture/witley-park-near-godalming-surrey (Dell & Wainwright 'one of the great partnerships in the history of British photography'; their work for the Architectural Review 'extremely influential on both their contemporaries in the 1930s and the younger generation of photographers who operated after the war'; Mark Oliver Dell, 1883–1959; Herbert Lionel Wainwright, born in London in 1902; credit Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Library Photographs Collection)
- Photograph: Shrubs Wood, quintessential modern house of 1930s Britain (Valeria Carullo, RIBA Journal, 1 July 2024), archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20251208094540/https://www.ribaj.com/culture/parting-shot-shrubs-wood-stairs-dell-wainwright-modernism/ (Dell & Wainwright, 'official photographers of the Architectural Review in the 1930s'; their photograph of the stair at Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff's Shrubs Wood and its dramatic cast shadows)
- Straight photography, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_photography (a scene depicted in sharp focus and detail; 'This emphasis on the sharp and detailed silver prints dominated modernist photographic aesthetics into the 1970s')
- Werner Mantz: Architectures and People, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 14 October 2017 – 21 January 2018: https://www.museum-ludwig.de/en/ausstellungen/archiv/2018/werner-mantz-architectures-and-people (one of the most prominent photographers of the Neues Bauen in 1920s Cologne; from 1926 commissions from Wilhelm Riphahn, Peter Franz Nöcker and Caspar Maria Grod; published in Bauwelt, Die Form and Bauwarte; 'objective, black-and-white austerity')
- Werner Mantz, German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Mantz (worked in the style of Neue Sachlichkeit and Neues Bauen of the 1920s; house photographer of Wilhelm Riphahn from 1926; published from 1927 in Bauwelt and Die Form; used light as his chief means of design)
- Architectural photography, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_photography (perspective control and non-converging verticals with view cameras, whose lens can be tilted or shifted relative to the film plane; deep depth of field; twilight and ambient light for exteriors)
- 'Framing the image', Architectural Record, August 2009: https://architecturalrecord.com/articles/11249-framing-the-image ('For the Koenig house, Shulman opened his lens on the cosmos of the Los Angeles night for 7.5 minutes with his 4x5 camera, at the same time that a flash highlighted two women standing inside')
- Amy Hood, 'Growing Up in One of L.A.'s Most Iconic Houses', Getty News, 19 July 2021: https://www.getty.edu/news/growing-up-in-one-of-los-angeles-most-iconic-houses (a seven-minute exposure of the glass-walled living room on a May night in 1960, introduced with 'legend has it')
- Paul Makovsky, 'Image Maker: Ezra Stoller', Metropolis, 1 December 2012: https://metropolismag.com/programs/image-maker-ezra-stoller/ (first a Linhof; for the early work an 8-by-10 camera with black-and-white, daylight and tungsten colour sheet film, lights and cases of flashbulbs; several exposures of each view; for interiors flashbulbs to change, lights to gel and windows to black out between exposures)
- Architectural photography, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_photography (view cameras whose lens can be shifted or tilted to keep verticals from converging; deep depth of field; twilight exteriors)
- Paul Makovsky, 'Image Maker: Ezra Stoller', Metropolis, 1 December 2012: https://metropolismag.com/programs/image-maker-ezra-stoller/ (sheet film 'black and white, color daylight, and tungsten'; for interiors 'flashbulbs to change, lights to gel' and windows to black out between exposures; several exposures of each view in black and white and in colour)

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