Customer Reviews

Architecture Transformed: A History of the Photography of Buildings from 1839 to the Present

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A beautifully produced book with a great history of architectural photography. The essays are clearly written and well-reasoned, and Mr. Herschman's path through the beginnings of the field, connecting folks I wouldn't have immediately fingered as architectural photographers, was a great read. Unfortunately, as we approach the contemporary (or contemporary for the date of publication), Mr. Robinson gets rather grouchy-old-man on the new photographers, somehow finding William Clift's brilliant juxtaposition of a new international style mirrorglass skyscraper and the more classical/beaux arts courthouse it reflects and fragments a failure, as it does not particularly document for us what the courthouse looks like. There are also no plates in color, a great omission.

However, the book is beautifully printed otherwise, and (with those few crochety moments aside) very well written. A last minor gripe is the proportion of the volume. Large and nearly square, reading it would be greatly aided by a lectern; it sits in the hand with all the grace of a beached octopus.