Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman FROM THE PUBLISHER
Julius Shulman, one of the great masters of modern architectural photography, is the preeminent recorder of early California modernism. By 1927 when he was sixteen, Shulman was already using the family Brownie box camera to document his Southern California surroundings and experiences; in 1936, his professional career was launched when he sent Richard Neutra some uncommissioned photographs of the architect's Kun House. Shulman went on to document the famous Case Study House Program (architects included Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, and Eero Saarinen) and also the architecture of the 1930s through the 1980s, especially that of Southern California, but also country- and worldwide. His subjects included the buildings of R. M. Schindler, John Lautner, Raphael Soriano, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Oscar Niemeyer, among many others. Through his work, Shulman defined the image of Los Angeles and framed the architecture of the time for a global audience. In addition to an overview of Shulman's career and photographic oeuvre, this book emphasizes Shulman's method of "constructing" photographic views. These constructions, which complemented his innate ability to compose striking photographs often transcend reality to capture the spirit, time and place of a work of architecture. An analysis of architecture's visual presentation examines not only the media of the era - John Entenza's Arts & Architecture, for instance - but also the work of Shulman's photographic contemporaries.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Architectural photographer Julius Shulman left indelible images of early California modernism in his photographs of buildings by Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Rudolph Schindler and others. Shulman's seductive compositions helped define the popular image of California, especially Los Angeles, as a place of promise where one could remake oneself. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1910, Shulman, who moved to California at age 10 after living on a Connecticut farm, has a reverence for the order he perceives in both natural and architectural forms. Crystalline studies of lakes and boats, shots of Mexican pyramids and a traditional Norwegian house, lyrical photos of oil refineries and of Henry Moore's sculpture exemplify his diversity. This visually exciting portfolio includes sensitive appreciations by Rosa, director of Columbia University's Architectural Galleries, and the late McCoy, historian of Southern California architecture. (Apr.)
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