After
serving
in
the
Air
Forces
as
an
aerial
photographer
during
World
War
II,
Marvin
Rand enrolled
at
LA’s
Art
Center
College
of
Design,
where
he
would
rub
elbows
with
a
group
of
avant-garde
artists
and
designers,
including
Saul
Bass
and
Charles
and
Ray
Eames.
A
few
years
after
graduating, Rand
shot
the
interior
of
a
Pacific
Palisades
house
as
a
favor
for
an
industrial
designer
friend,
but
the
images
caught
the
eye
of
architectural
historian
and
author
Ester
McCoy.
She
got
them
published
in
a
home
magazine
and
kickstarted
Rand's architectural
photography
career
in
the
process.Over
more
than
five
decades,
Rand crisscrossed
LA,... Read More
camera
in-hand,
capturing
the
architectural
creations
of
Modernist
luminaries
like
Frank
Lloyd
Wright,
Louis
Kahn,
Cesar
Pelli,
Craig
Ellwood,
and
Frank
Gehry.
He
shot
the
first
meticulous
survey
of
Simon
Rodia’s
monumental
Watts
Towers.
His
extensive
documentation
of
the
work
of
Charles
and
Henry
Greene,
and
Irving
Gill
resulted
in
seminal
books.
He
would
become
an
honorary
member
of
the
American
Institute
of
Architects
(a
rare
privilege
for
a
photographer!)
and
amass
an
archive
of
tens
of
thousands
of
images
that
act
a
compendium
of
Modernist
masterpieces.