WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Architectural photographer Ezra Stoller, 89, died in his home in Williamstown, Mass. As Paul Goldberger, the former architecture critic of the New York Times, wrote, “…[Stoller’s] pictures are surely among the most reproduced, and they have in and of themselves played a major role in shaping the public’s perception of what modern architecture is all about.” Working at the height of the modernist style in America (from the mid-1940s through the 1960s), Ezra Stoller became one of the preeminent architectural photographers in the world. His exacting attention to detail and unparalleled ability to translate an architect’s vision into two dimensions has made his images prized by architects, editors, and collectors. Indeed, he was considered ‘the only man for the job’ among architects seeking images of their work, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer.

Ezra Stoller was born in Chicago in 1915. He graduated from the New York University School of Architecture and Allied Arts with a degree in industrial design in 1938. He soon became a freelance photographer specializing in architecture and industrial subjects. From 1940 to 1941 he worked for the photographer Paul Strand in the Office for Emergency Management. Drafted in 1942, he taught photography at the Army Signal Corps Photo Center in New York City. In 1961 he became the first photographer to be awarded the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal. In 1966 he founded the photography agency ESTO Photographics, which still represents his work and that of a number of other architectural photographers.