By acquiring the archives of internationally renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman, the Getty now boasts having one of the most important centers for the study of 20th-century architecture through photography.
Much of what we know, and think, about modern architecture we learned from Julius Shulman. The living legend, now in his 96th year, has lent his discerning eye to documenting countless celebrated structures throughout the world. It’s through his lenses that our perception’particularly of mid-century, cutting-edge houses in Southern California’has been shaped and defined. Shulman’s elegant compositions, exalting the cool, clean geometry of modernism, stand in sharp contrast to his own avuncular manner (he refers to himself as “Uncle Julius”)’one that is at turns both boastful and self-effacing, all dispensed with charm and wit. His endearing personality and iconic photographs were headlined recently when the Getty celebrated his 95th birthday party, in tandem with the opening of his photographic exhibition. The event began with an open conversation with Shulman, moderated by Wim de Wit, the Getty Institute’s curator of architectural drawings. The Getty Research Institute is positively giddy about its new acquisition, one that has catapulted this scholarly arm of the institution into a surprisingly popular venue. The archive, officially transferred to the Institute last April and containing 260,000 negatives, prints and transparencies, has already received more viewing requests than any other holding. “The reference staff is busy fielding calls from all over the world,” says Christopher Alexander, co-curator of the exhibition. The exhibition, “Julius Shulman, Modernity and the Metropolis,” is a “greatest hits” compilation of images by this rock star of architectural photography, with 83 works on view. Of course, the most famous photograph of all’Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22’is among the picks. It is perhaps the ultimate expression of the glamorous L.A. lifestyle Shulman’s photographs often promoted, with two women relaxing in a glass-enclosed living room that is dramatically suspended above the city lights of Hollywood. “In many ways, he was selling modern architecture,” says the Getty’s Alexander. “Shulman’s photographs not only are dynamic, but they also helped convince people of the livability and comfort of these houses.” During a recent telephone interview with the Palisadian-Post, Shulman chimed in about his most famous work. “The picture of those two girls in conversation is so natural and looks so comfortable,” he says. “Seeing the photograph is how a New Yorker could identify with what it’s like being in Los Angeles. “If you add a little substance to it, it sells the product,” continues Shulman, who purports to be a businessman as much as an artist. Not only were his powerful angles and perspective groundbreaking, but Shulman’s accessorizing’daring to put people and furnishings in the picture’was a big innovation. It all began in 1936 with a chance visit to Richard Neutra’s Kun house in the Hollywood Hills, where Shulman casually snapped a few photographs. When Neutra saw the pictures, he was sufficiently impressed to have hired Shulman to document all his buildings. “With his invitation to photograph other projects, I was suddenly a photographer,” writes Shulman in his 1998 autobiography. Three years earlier, Shulman had received a Kodak Vest Pocket camera as a 23rd birthday gift and he became an avid picture-taking hobbyist. However, he writes: “Becoming a photographer was still the furthest thing from my mind.” A steady stream of commissions from other major architects, people like Rudolf Schindler, Raphael Soriano, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, and Gregory Ain followed, and Shulman’s career as an architectural photographer’a goal he had never consciously sought’took off. Along with photographs commissioned by these visionaries’including many California Case Study Houses’the exhibition also features lesser-known images of gas stations, movie palaces and markets that eloquently tell the story of L.A.’s growth. Shulman, who is fond of prefacing remarks with “Now that I’ve reached middle age,” was born in Brooklyn on October 10, 1910. He grew up on a Connecticut farm and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 10. He credits an affinity with nature, nurtured early on, as the most significant influence in his work, one that allows him to intuitively frame and assemble the elements of design to create a statement. “In the early years, when we lived on a farm, they used to have to go and look for me,” he says. “I was always lost in the woods somewhere.” Although officially retired, Shulman continues to take photographs, often collaborating with Juergen Nogai. The two recently returned from Germany, where they photographed an early Neutra house in Frankfurt. “When the prints were completed, I immediately called Juergen,” Shulman says. “‘They are wonderful,’ I told him. ‘You and I are good photographers.'”
