Visual art / Architecture & design
Balthazar Korab
1926–2013 · architectural photographer, architect
Hungarian-born architect-photographer who joined Eero Saarinen's Michigan office in 1955 and became one of America's leading architectural photographers from his Detroit-area base.
- Born
Budapest, Hungary- Died
- Birth name
- Korab Balthazár
- Also known as
- Korab Balthazár
- Detroit years
- 1955–2013
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Korab fled communist Hungary in 1949, studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and, with fellow Hungarian László Péter Kollár, placed fourth in the 1956 Sydney Opera House competition. After arriving in the United States in 1955 he joined Eero Saarinen's office in Bloomfield Hills, where his skill with a camera turned him into the firm's photographer: he used photographs of models to test designs and documented buildings such as the TWA Flight Center. He stayed in metro Detroit for the rest of his career, and the region's architects embraced him, commissioning him to record their work. Over five decades he photographed buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, I. M. Pei and many others, as well as Michigan's landscapes and industrial heritage. The American Institute of Architects gave him a lifetime achievement award for photography in 2007, and his archive is now at the Library of Congress. He died in 2013.
Highlights
- Joined Eero Saarinen's Bloomfield Hills office in 1955
- Fourth place in the 1956 Sydney Opera House competition
- AIA lifetime achievement award for architectural photography (2007)
- His photo archive is held by the Library of Congress
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1950s
General Motors Technical Center
One of the Saarinen buildings he photographed while working for the firm.