Respect is due to the photographer Julius Shulman who died on Wednesday, aged 98. A photographer best known for capturing the golden age of Californian modernist architecture, he spent the post-war years shooting public and private projects by the likes of Mies Van Der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. They may have designed the homes but it was Shulman that brought them to life, letting shadows dance across their interiors or capturing them in the context of a glittering city skyline.
Amazingly, Shulman continued to work until very recently, bequeathing more than 250,000 prints to the Getty Research Institute in 2005 and giving an interview to Metropolis magazine two years ago for the publication of his three-volume Taschen retrospective. I'd known some of his best known images for years but only put a name to them with the Birth Of The Cool exhibition and catalogue. Anyway, as a mini Hip Walk tribute, here are three of my Shulman favourites:
Chuey House, Los Angeles, California, 1958
Case Study House #20, Altadena, California, 1958
Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960
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Beautiful pics. Shulman was fortunate to have such fantastic material to work with but he certainly made the most of it.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics!!! nice job! :)
ReplyDeleteNot sure which I love more: the seemingly effortless photography or the seemingly effortless live being lived in those homes.
ReplyDeletethanks for a great tribute post.
suz