By Kimberly Link-Wills

“I have been blessed, or cursed, with a love of life and a passion of insatiable curiosity seeking insights and knowledge,” writes John Portman, Arch 50, in the preface for the 5-pound retrospective of his 50-plus-year career by The Images Publishing Group of Australia.

“This book is an attempt to understand one’s professional life exhibited through the evolution of the unique spiritual fingerprints of form expressed through architecture, painting, sculpture and design,” writes Portman of FORM, which includes the images of Atlanta’s SunTrust Plaza skybridge and his painting, Fey, above.

“Form, seen exposed by light, is an expression of our reality. The world, as we know it, reveals itself through form from the universe down to the smallest bit of matter. Nature is ordered form. Evolving from the shape of nothingness, form can evoke feelings both conscious and subconscious. In art, form should not be forced but should evolve naturally from the essence of its being. Form in nature is never arbitrary as it reveals itself. The result is timeless — a tree is still a tree!”

The Temple of Light Lamp, above, was designed as part of Portman’s Entelechy Series. All photos provided by John Portman & Associates and reproduced with permission of The Images Publishing Group.

Detail of the spiral stairs in the former office of John Portman & Associates in the Peachtree Center South Tower in Atlanta. Photo by Jonathan Hillyer, 1984.

Jubilee, a 1986 painting by Portman.

Detail of the floor tile pattern of the Portman-designed Four Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. Photographed by the architect’s son, Michael Portman, in 1992.

Detail of a glass chandelier designed by Portman in 1970 and the cover image for FORM. Photo by Haigwood Studios Photography Inc., 2009.

Detail of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.