In an article about Brutalism, "Wired" recently featured the work architectural photographer Wayne Thom, whose archive the USC Libraries acquired in August. Although some critics find Brutalist structures style cold and distancing, the article's author, Sam Lubell, focused on the style's elegance, noting that Thom's work reveals its "technical fluency, sculptural ambition, and clever economy."
Lubell also mentioned the libraries' acquisition of Thom's collection:
In all, Thom worked for more than 50 years, documenting upward of 2,800 projects. His archives were recently acquired by USC. “I wanted to share the architects’ skill and audacity, and stir curiosity,” he says. He likes to compare his photography to writing sentences, with elements like lighting, camera angle, color, texture, and material acting as adjectives describing a building.
The USC Libraries are currently processing Thom's collection; a small sample is available online in the USC Digital Library.