If the name Julius Shulman doesn’t immediately ring a bell, what about names like Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, Pierre Koenig, or Mies Van der Rohe? Julius Shulman documented them all. But he did more than just take pictures of famous buildings; his understanding of a building and its relationship to its surrounding environment paved the way not only for L.A.’s modern architecture movement, but for architectural photography in general. He was keenly aware of how our daily lives – every building we work in, sleep in or walk by – are shaped by architects.
Though Shulman died this past July, he left behind some the most stunning photographs of the 20th century. VISUAL ACOUSTICS, a documentary narrated by Dustin Hoffman, pays tribute to his legacy.
In limited release. In NYC Oct. 9 at Cinema Village, and in LA Oct. 16 at Landmark Nuart.
September 18th, 2009 - 3:46 pm
Mr Shulman was a prolific commercial photographer working for many of LA’s architectural firms-documenting famous, and not-so-famous, LA firms. His work reflects the full range of architectural activity taking place in LA, in the days when the architecture was the subject, and not the architect.