Le Corbusier & Lucien Herve

Book excerpt: In 1949, the photographer Lucien Herve (1910-2007) took a picture of an innovative apartment building in Marseille, France, and sent it to the building's architect, Le Corbusier (1887-1965). Le Corbusier responded by asking Herve to become his official photographer. This book recounts the creative collaboration between these two groundbreaking Modernists. The author takes the reader on a tour of sixteen of Le Corbusier's most iconic buildings using Herve's edited sheets of contact prints as visual guides. These sheets, which became an effective tool in the collaborative dissemination of Le Corbusier's work, capture Herve's dynamic perspectives and dramatic use of light. His sequencing of the individual prints creates an exhilarating rhythm that powerfully showcases the architect's novel forms and materials.