Ezra Stoller was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 architectural photographer.

Stoller was born in Chicago. His interest in photography began while he was an architecture student at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, when he began making lantern slide

Magic lantern

The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...

s and photographs of architectural models, drawings and sculpture

Architectural photographers

Early architectural photographers include Roger Fenton, Francis Frith , Samuel Bourne and Albert Levy . They paved the way for the modern speciality of architectural photography. Later architectural photography had practitioners such as Ezra Stoller and Julius Shulman...

. After his graduation in 1939, he concentrated on photography.

His work featured landmarks of modern architecture, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....

's Seagram Building

Seagram Building

The Seagram Building is a skyscraper, located at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd Street and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with Philip Johnson. Severud Associates were the structural engineering consultants. The building...

, Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

's Fallingwater

Fallingwater

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...

, Alvar Aalto

Alvar Aalto

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware...

's Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair

1939 New York World's Fair

The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...

. Stoller is often cited in aiding the spread of the Modern Movement.

In 1961, he was the first recipient of a Gold Medal for Photography from the American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

. Stoller's photographs were featured in the book Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller. In his later years, Stoller founded Esto Photographics, a commercial photography firm currently directed by his daughter Erica Stoller.

Stoller's son Evan Stoller is an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 and designer of a line of architecturally influenced modern furniture

Modern furniture

Modern furniture refers to furniture produced from the late 19th century through the present that is influenced by modernism. It was a tremendous departure from all furniture design that had gone before it. Dark or gilded carved wood and richly patterned fabrics gave way to the glittering...

 called Stoller Works.

He died in Williamstown, Massachusetts

Williamstown, Massachusetts

Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...

, on 29 October 2004, from complications of a stroke.