Archivo de la etiqueta: Balthazar Korab

Architectural Photographer Balthazar Korab dies at 86

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On January 15, 2013, illustrious architect and photographer Balthazar Korab (1926-2013) lost his prolonged battle with Parkinson’s disease. Although he managed to keep a low profile throughout most of his life, Korab was one of the most prolific and celebrated architectural photographers of midcentury modernism. 

The Hungarian-born, Paris-trained architect emigrated to the United States in 1955 after  working throughout Europe as an apprentice with a number of notable architects, such as Le Corbusier. Shortly after arriving, he landed a job in the famed office of Eero Saarinen, where be began experimenting with photography. It was here that he discovered his talent for architectural photography and began his career as an architectural photographer by capturing the masterworks of Eero Saarinen.

Throughout his life he documented masterworks of the world’s most influential architects, including Mies van der Rohe’s S. R. Crown Hall, Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum and Salk Institute, Minoru Yamasaki’s World Trade Center, Richard Meier’s Douglas House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, and Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, among many others.

Recently published by the Princeton Architectural Press is the riveting illustrated biography, “Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography” by John Comazzi, that traces his circuitous path to a career in photography.

Architectural Photographer Balthazar Korab dies at 86 originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 18 Jan 2013.

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Balthazar Korab, Photographer Of Modernism, Dies

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There are photographers who posses the “soul” of an architect, as Le Corbusier once put it, and then there are architects who posses the incisive eye of a photographer. The latter formulation was perhaps best embodied by Balthazar Korab, the architect-turned-documenter of buildings who died yesterday. The Michigan chapter of the AIA announced the passing of the Detroit-based photographer, who was born in Budapest in 1926. The Hungarian native received his architectural training in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and despite his tutelage there, would find work in the offices of modernists like Le Corbusier himself. In 1955, Korab was hired by Eero Saarinen as the architect’s in-house photographer and in whose employment, he would capture some of his most stunning images, including those of TWA Terminal and the Miller House. Continue.

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Following his experiences with Saarinen, Korab would go on to place fourth in the international competition to design the Sydney Opera House. He then joined Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin entourage in 1958, at the master’s personal request. His photographic work, which is marked by deep shadows and contrasts, gained widespread acclaim from both the press and practitioners like Mies van der Rohe. In 1964, Korab was awarded the AIA Medal for Architectural Photography, after which he would focus his talents solely on images. This past year, the Princeton Architectural Press released a collection entitled Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography, which features some of Korab’s most memorable pictures.

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All images from “Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography” by John Comazzi; Princeton Architectural Press

Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography / John Comazzi

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No one captured the midcentury modernism of the Mad Men era better than Balthazar Korab. As one of the period’s most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers, Korab captured images as graceful and elegant as his subjects. His iconic photographs for master architects immortalized their finest works, while leaving his own indelible impact on twentieth century visual culture. In this riveting illustrated biography, the first dedicated solely to his life and career, author John Comazzi traces Korab’s circuitous path to a career in photography. He paints a vivid picture of a young man forced to flee his native Hungary, who goes on to study architecture at the famed École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before emigrating to the United States and launching his career as Eero Saarinen’s on-staff photographer.

The book includes a portfolio of more than one hundred images from Korab’s professionally commissioned architecture photography as well as close examinations of Saarinen’s TWA Terminal and the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. The photos documenting finished buildings and architects at work include iconic images of Mies van der Rohe’s S. R. Crown Hall, Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum and Salk Institute, Minoru Yamasaki’s World Trade Center, Richard Meier’s Douglas House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, and Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, among many others.

CONTENT

006 Foreword / Cesar Pelli
008 Introduction, More thsn a Self-portrait
012 Biography, The Making of a Photographer

041 Case Studies
042 TWA Flight Center
056 Miller House
073 Plates

074 Inflected Modernism
138 Beyond Modernism
153 Additional portfolios

184 Acknowledgments
186 Notes
190 Bibliography

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Format: 8 x 10 inches (20.3 x 25.4 cm), Hardcover 
Pages: 192 (20 color illustrations, 200 b/w illustrations )
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-61689-041-4 

Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography / John Comazzi originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 Sep 2012.

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