The Romance of Architecture

A.T.J. Cairns was Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary.

This work is — sadly — something of a memorial volume: Roloff Beny, though 60 at his death in 1984, was, like Glenn Gould, a Canadian artist of stature who still had much to give us.

He did leave, however, literally hundreds of unpublished images, as well as various projects in diverse states of completion. Here we are presented with the first volume of a planned trilogy he called his “Visual Journals.” It was largely completed by John Julius Norwich, who contributes a brief, amiable Introduction. Each section opens with two succinct paragraphs in Beny’s own words; and, as usual in these volumes, the pictures themselves are accompanied by concise quotes from a very wide range of appropriate authors, from classical to modern.

As in almost all of Beny’s books, though, it is the photographs rather than the words that hold the eye and are the work’s excuse for being. The volume is divided into sections, each of which is devoted to a single, basic architectural element: Walls, Arches, Domes; Columns and Colonnades, Aqueducts and Bridges, Floors and Pavements; Towers, Spires and Castles. A book such as this is really a choice of personal preferences, and my own are the chapters on Walls, Arches, and Towers; each section, though, has its own individuality and impact.

Beny was never less than an absolute professional; a master of his craft, with a creative eye and imagination, he produced a body of images of evocative symmetry and intensity. It is fashionable in certain circles of current photographic practice and criticism to denigrate his work and that of Youssuf Karsh: the achievements of both men will long outlast such futile arrogances.