Rediscovering Architectural Photographer Julius Shulman's Modernism

Cunningham Residence (“Stoneflower” House) by Herb Greene, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1964. (Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute)

Julius Shulman was more than an architectural photographer. When he died at age 98 in 2009, the New York Times credited him with helping to “idealize the California lifestyle in the postwar years.” He was particularly essential to the spread of Modernism, capturing the unique structural, functional, and design elements of the movement.

In Modernism Rediscovered, rarely seen images of Modernist homes are brought to light. The three-volume set features a careful selection of images from the over 260,000 in Shulman’s personal archives. The book combines his photographs and personal notes, with the annotations of architectural and photography experts from around the region. Some of the homes Shulman photographed were designed by William Beckett, Frank Gehry, John Lautner, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among others. Enjoy a preview of the book below, or learn more about it here. Watch one of Shulman’s last interviews at the bottom of this piece.

Frey Residence I by Albert Frey, Palm Springs, California, 1956. (Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute)

Spring Hotel, Bequia, by Crites & McConnell, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 1967. (Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute)

Krause & Johansen