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Between 1966 and 1968 Korab worked with Astra Zarina on a photoessay project documenting Roman roofscapes.

Balthazar Korab (Hungarian: Koráb Boldizsár; 1926–2013) was a Hungarian-American photographer based in Detroit, Michigan, specializing in architectural, art and landscape photography.

Biography

Korab was born in Budapest, Hungary, and migrated to France after fleeing from Hungary's communist government in 1949. At the École des beaux-arts in Paris, he completed a diploma of architecture in 1954. For a time, he was a journeyman under the direction of leading European architects, including Le Corbusier.

In 1955, Korab arrived in the United States, and Eero Saarinen employed him as an architect, where his skill with a camera lead to him becoming responsible for the integration of photography into the architectural design process.^[1] The architectural community in Detroit embraced Korab's career, and many firms retained him to document their building and private home projects. In 1956, he was awarded fourth place in the international design competition for the Sydney Opera House. Korab documented the 1966 flood of the Arno in Florence, Italy.^[2]

In 1994, American President Bill Clinton presented a portfolio of Balthazar Korab's photography to Árpád Göncz, the president of Hungary. Korab died on January 15, 2013, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He is survived by his wife Monica and two children, Christian and Alexandra. Today, Korab's collection is held at the Library of Congress.^[3]

Highlights of architectural photography

Le Corbusier: Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University; Unité d’Habitation, Marseille
Mies van der Rohe: Berlin National Gallery; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Louis Isadore Kahn: Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA; Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth, TX
Frank Lloyd Wright: Guggenheim Museum, New York; comprehensive coverage of all structures built between 1893 - 1959
Eero Saarinen: TWA Terminal, JFK Airport, NY; Dulles International Airport, Washington Metropolitan Area; St. Louis Arch; GM Technical Center, Detroit
Harry Weese: Arena Stage, Washington D.C.; Time-Life Building, Chicago
Minoru Yamasaki: World Trade Center North Tower and South Tower - comprehensive coverage of model through finished building
Frank Gehry: Own house in Santa Monica, CA; Weisman Museum, Minneapolis
Marcel Breuer: Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota; Unesco Headquarters, Paris
Edward Larrabee Barnes: Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Philip Johnson: Transco Tower, Houston; Detroit One Center; Glass House, New Canaan, CT
I M Pei: Dallas City Hall, National Gallery East Wing, Washington, D.C.; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland
Cesar Pelli: City Hall San Bernardino, CA; Four Leaf Towers, Houston; Cleveland Clinic
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill: US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs; Lutheran Brotherhood, Minneapolis; Grinnell College, Iowa
Louis Sullivan: National Farmers Bank, Owatonna, MN; Carson Pirie Scott, Chicago

Honors and career highlights

1957 Sydney Opera House Competition – Fourth Prize
1958 Invited by Frank Lloyd Wright to join Taliesin
1964 American Institute of Architects Medal for Architectural Photography
1975 Michigan Society of Architects – Honorary Member
1977-1982 Governor’s Committee on Art in Public Places – Michigan
1984-1986 Design Editor – Metropolitan Detroit
1985 American Institute of Architects Detroit Chapter – Honorary Member
1986 Arts Foundation of Michigan
1989 Michigan Society of Landscape Architects – Honorary Member
1998 Cranbrook Educational Community, President’s Design Advisory Committee
2007 American Institute of Architects Lifetime Achievement Award for Photography; Hungarian Institute of Architects, Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement

Bibliography

Books and articles featuring Korab's pictures.

Comazzi, John, Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography, Princetown Architectural Press, New York, 2012
Ferry, W. Hawkins, The Buildings of Detroit; A History, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1968
Hogg, Victor and Balthazar Korab, Legacy of the River Raisin: The Historic Buildings of Monroe County, Michigan, The Monroe County Historical Society, Monroe, Michigan, 1976.
Schmitt, Peter and Balthazar Korab, Kalamazoo: Nineteenth-century Homes in a Midwestern Village, Kalamazoo City Historical Commission, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1976
Hendry, L Fay, Outdoor Sculpture in Grand Rapids, iota Press, Okemos, Michigan, 1980
Hendry, L Fay, Outdoor Sculpture in Kalamazoo, iota Press, Okemos, Michigan, 1980
Hendry, L Fay, Outdoor Sculpture in Lansing, iota Press, Okemos, Michigan, 1980
New Deal, Government Architecture, Murals & Sculpture of the 1930s & 1940s: A Walking Tour of East Lansing & Lansing, photographs from the Balthazar Korab Collection ca. 1986
Farbman, Suzy and James P Gallagher, The Renaissance of the Wayne County Building, Smith, Hinchman & Grylls Associates, Inc., The Old Wayne County Building Limited Partnership, Walbridge Aldinger Company, Detroit, Michigan 1989
Eckert, Kathryn Bishop, Buildings of Michigan, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993
Eckert, Kathryn Bishop, Cranbrook: The Campus Guide, Princeton Architectural Press, NY, 2001
Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher, AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 2003

References

^ Korab, Balthazar; Comazzi, John (2012). Balthazar Korab: architect of photography (1st ed.). New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-61689-196-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^ Conway, Paul Conway; Martha O'Hara (2018). Conway, Paul (ed.). Flood in Florence, 1966: A Fifty-Year Retrospective. doi:10.3998/mpub.9310956. hdl:2027/spo.mpub9310956. ISBN 978-1-60785-456-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Korab Collection". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2010-03-28.