Gift of the Robert C. Lautman Photography Collection

The legendary—and active—Washington-based architectural photographer Robert C. Lautman is donating his photographic archives to the National Building Museum. The extensive collection of 30,000 (and counting) prints, transparencies, and negatives documents American architectural trends during the second half of the twentieth century and, coincidentally, provides a remarkable record of the metropolitan area’s growth and development. The images capture a wide range of commercial, residential, and institutional projects dating from 1948, when Lautman opened his first studio.

As a young photographer, Lautman quickly gained the respect of the area’s up-and-coming modernist architects, including Charles M. Goodman, Arthur H. Keyes, Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Warren J. Cox, and George E. Hartman, all of whom became life-long clients. Lautman is known for capturing vantage points that yield unusually evocative images of his subjects, including daring aerial views, a skill that builds on his experience with the U.S. Army Paratroopers during World War II. In the 1960s, work for developer James Rouse sent Lautman across the country and helped expand his growing national reputation—as did his commissions from prominent architecture and shelter magazines.

While keeping one foot planted firmly in modern design, Lautman has also garnered accolades for his work in historic preservation, including his illustration of books on Monticello and Mount Vernon. He is a recipient of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal for Architectural Photography and is an honorary member of the AIA.

Lautman’s passion for architectural photography developed during his postwar apprenticeship with one of New York City’s leading commercial photographers, Richard Wurts, who mentored the combat photography veteran. In 1983, Richard and his wife Geraldine Wurts donated upwards of 20,000 prints and negatives to the National Building Museum. The internationally recognized Wurts Brothers Photography Collection documents earlyand mid-twentieth-century American building. Now, thanks to the generous donation of the Lautman Collection which seamlessly complements the Wurts Brothers Collection, the Museum is the repository of two closely linked, major photographic archives.

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