Ezra Stoller (1915-2004) was the doyen of American architectural photographers.Oddly enough for a man whose images have a classical sense of balance and purity, he was largely self taught, and developed his own sense of pictorial austerity. He is credited with making acceptable the Modernist Movement among the business classes, yet many of the interiors he sought to convey were surprisingly garish and cheesy. Praised for his black and white work, FORTUNE shows him at his colorful best (another example of an inherent prejudice against colour and all its richness).

He would arrive on location with a plan and scout the best vantage points. Like Walker Evans he took particular note of the appropriate fall of light at certain times of the day. The selection above shows his great range of imagery, that he was more than an eye for the empty sleek interior. His letter to me reinforces his huge respect for Will Burtin.