Robert C. Lautman

Over a 40-year span, Lautman documented the construction of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Washington Post architecture critic Benjamin Forgey wrote in 1996, "It is a pleasure to study such photographs at length. Many photographers have stood in more or less the same place [in the cathedral's nave] to capture a dramatic, long view of this interior. Yet so clear are the repeated piers, ribs, trefoils and triforium arches in this photograph that it makes the point better than any other picture I have seen -- the whole is greater than the parts, but the parts themselves are great."

The American Institute of Architects said in 1973, "The subtle play of light and shadow in his photographs captures and complements the nuances of architectural design," upon awarding him its highest honor, the Gold Medal for Photography.

In the 1960s, Maryland developer James Rouse hired Lautman to photograph many of his projects across the United States. His national reputation began to grow, and his work began to appear in magazines such as Home and Garden, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Elle, Smithsonian and others.

The House Committee on Un-American Activities called Lautman to testify in 1954. He was among 11 residents of the Washington, DC, area that refused to answer the committee's questions that year on constitutional grounds. That experience did not seem to harm his career, as many modernist architects soon became loyal clients.

Following the war, Lautman worked in several photo studios in New York, and in 1948 established his own photography business in Washington, DC. By 1954, he was carrying as standard equipment "a lineman's pole climbers and safety belt for shooting from telephone poles and trees". In 1996, he was still going out on a limb, dangling from the end of a construction cranes at the National Cathedral to get the right angle.

Robert Clayton Lautman (November 8, 1923 - October 20, 2009) was an American architectural photographer.