Wayne Thom: Envisioning the Late Modern

Description

The first monograph of photographer Wayne Thom, whose documentation of Late Modern architecture constitutes an architectural/visual archive unlike any other. A key primer to late-twentieth century Modernism, this monograph devoted to Wayne Thom chronicles his practice and the architectural and urban environment in which he worked. Wayne Thom documents key projects by the path-breaking architecture firms at the forefront of Late Modernist design including William Pereira & Associates, DMJM, Edward Durell Stone, SOM, Gio Ponti, John Portman, A. C. Martin & Associates, Arthur Erickson, I. M. Pei, and A. Quincy Jones. Other firms, less-known today but with significant portfolios from that period, are revived through the photographs and demonstrate the era's diversity. Born in Shanghai in 1933, Thom and his family fled the Japanese invasion in 1941 to Hong Kong, where he was educated, and then to Vancouver (his brother, Bing Thom, remained there to establish his globally recognized architecture practice). It was his move to California in the mid-1960s to attend the Brooks Institute that established his technical craftsmanship in the darkroom, a hallmark of his future career. He also became adept at harnessing natural light for both interior and exterior compositions; unlike the architectural photography conventions of the day, Thom used only found lighting. He soon began working with local architects and met the figures who would become his clients and benefcators, most importantly A. Quincy Jones, a prolific architect and Dean of the School of Architecture at USC. Thom's photography became inseparable from Late Modernism in the popular imagination, a period of architectural production that ran from the late 1960s through the 1980s. His images were broadly published in Architectural Forum, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, and Domus--where he photographed for Gio Ponti in his dual capacity as the magazine's publisher and as an architect. Wayne Thom- Envisioning the Late Modern is a celebration of this key architectural photographer and a unique chronicle of the works of this era.

Wayne Thom was born in Shanghai in 1933. His work, which spans five decades, documents modern architecture throughout the Western United States and the Pacific Rim, with the bulk of his work documenting the greater Los Angeles area. Thom is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Modern Masters Award of the Los Angeles Conservancy (2015), and life membership in the Professional Photographers of America. He has worked with significant modern architects of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries including A. Quincy Jones, William Pereira, Arthur Erickson, John Portman, Gio Ponti, SOM, and his brother, Bing Thom. Emily Bills is an author, curator, and faculty at Woodbury University. Dr. Bills has contributed essays to books on architectural and urban history, including Michigan Modern- Design That Shaped America and Visual Merchandising- The Image of Selling. Her coauthored book California Captured, Mid-Century Modern Architecture (Phaidon, 2018) won a Glenn Goldman Art, Architecture & Photography Award by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association for its perspective on the life and work of architectural photographer Marvin Rand. Her next book, Linking Up Los Angeles- How the Telephone Built a City, is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press.

"Wayne Thom photographed the power of 1970s architecture. He's finally getting his due. - Los Angeles Times "Readers will discover over 200 shots, recording trailblazing structures by I. M. Pei and Gio Ponti. Glowing colour prints are set against high contrast monochrome compositions, offering a visual spectacle." - Aesthetica Magazine "[Includes] page after page of Thom's remarkable photographs..." - Archidose