How is it that photography, despite reservations due to its supposedly superficial nature, prevails as one of the widely used mediums for representation of buildings? This is not merely due to its efficacy to document nor its appeal as an artwork, but because photography, when successful, can convey profound aspects of architecture. With help from work on visual depiction and using a case study of Ezra Stoller, we offer a conceptual framework for understanding how this is achieved. We propose that some architectural photographs — particularly those that bear the paradox of being ostensibly objective despite deliberately fabricated in their making — succeed in sustaining attention toward both the subject matter and the pictorial medium. Moreover, they do so by sharing with the architecture the properties and content that the photograph is best-suited to exemplify or express — such as sharpness in delineation or the sense of being in uncanny stillness. Architectural photography of this kind ensures the claim that the building is a representational form in itself — something not just seen, but seen as.

中文翻译：

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建筑性格的摄影表现：从埃兹拉·斯托勒的建筑摄影中汲取教训

尽管由于其所谓的肤浅性质而有所保留，但摄影如何成为广泛使用的代表建筑物的媒介之一？这不仅是因为它具有记录的功效，也不是因为它作为艺术品的吸引力，还因为摄影成功后，可以传达建筑的深刻方面。在视觉描绘工作的帮助下，并使用 Ezra Stoller 的案例研究，我们提供了一个概念框架来理解这是如何实现的。我们建议一些建筑照片——尤其是那些表面上是客观的，尽管在制作过程中故意捏造的悖论——成功地保持了对主题和图像媒介的关注。而且，他们通过与建筑分享照片最适合例证或表达的属性和内容来做到这一点——例如轮廓的锐度或处于不可思议的静止中的感觉。这种建筑摄影确保了建筑物本身就是一种代表性形式的说法——不仅仅是被看到的，而是被视为的。