Overview

Architect Harry Seidler has spent more than 50 years traveling the globe, extensively photographing the peak achievements in architecture from 3000 B.C. to the present day. Thanks to sound advice given to him early on by his photographer brother, Marcell ( Only use Leica cameras and Kodachrome film, which is archival ), Seidler's hobby quickly developed into a passion and, finally, an impressive archive of world architecture. Including, of course, many of the world's most famous architectural structures, Seidler's photographs illustrate the history and style - country by country - of architecture in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. Divided into chapters by country, each with a brief introduction outlining its architectural history, [i]Grand Tour[/i] offers armchair travelers, students, architecture buffs, and historians the opportunity to browse the buildings of the world through one man's photographs - the fruits of a passionate, half-century endeavor.

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9783822825556

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Reviews

From the palace at Sakkara to the London Eye, photographer Seidler captures 5000 years of architecture in sometimes-stunning detail. Words are kept to a minimum, with only a brief description at the beginning of each chapter. Instead, Seidler lets his pictures do the talking. A great deal they say, too, although they are not always the conventional views you might expect. Indeed, some are disappointing. The Temple of Hatshepsut at Thebes is generally regarded as one of the unsung wonders of the ancient world. Seidler's photograph more resembles a quarry, with the temple seen only as a distant object. Similarly the Great Pyramid and Sphinx at Gizeh appear to be rising from a rubbish tip. On the plus side are spectacular views of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the exotic array of architectural styles in Tel Aviv. An architect by profession, Seidler turned to photography as a hobby in the early 1950s and over the decades he has amassed a pictorial treasury from around the world. His views here are from 39 countries, each having a chapter to itself. In some ways the book resembles a travelogue rather than an architectural study, as Seidler has sought where possible to focus on human activity. As a taster of national character the pictures are interesting but architects will be more taken with the close-up shots from churches, palaces and stately homes. Many photographs occupy a whole page or even two pages; others are reduced to a size that disguises their detail. The book comes at a bargain price, however, and with its thousands of pictures it makes for good browsing. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Born in Vienna, Austria, [b]Harry Seidler[/b] studied architecture at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg before winning a scholarship to Harvard, where he studied under Walter Gropius. He also studied under Josef Albers at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and was the chief assistant of Marcel Breuer in New York from 1946 to 1948. He worked with Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro before opening his own practice in Sydney in 1949. He has taught at the Harvard School of Design, the ETH in Zurich, and the University of Sydney. In 1996, Seidler was awarded the RIBA gold medal.

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