The architectural photographer George Cserna, now 82 years old, trained in 
Hungary, survived both Allied and German bombings - "it was not a picnic" he 
says, in his rich Hungarian accent. Cserna photographed the bombed ruins 
after the war, but "the Russians took my camera" and he came to the United 
States in 1948, where he at first took up medical photography.  Today, 
speaking from his house in Switzerland, he gave me this account of his first 
big commission, for the magazine Architectural Forum:

"My first very big hit was photographing the Guggenheim Museum. There was a 
whole bribing [sic] going on, and Forum bribed the guards and I got in."

"Afterwards, some architects asked me to photograph their architecture, which 
was absolutely lousy, and they said ‘Your pictures are not as good as the 
ones of the Guggenheim Museum' and I said: ‘Well, you are not Frank Lloyd 
Wright.' "

--Submitted by Christopher Gray