At BoutiqueHomes, we love great design – but we also know how important it is to photograph it well. That’s why we have always admired Julius Shulman, the legendary American architectural photographer who took a vast array of modernist design masterpieces and froze them in time. His work captures the spirit of an era in southern California, and around the world.
In 1936, as a budding photographer, Shulman was invited to photograph Richard Neutra’s Kun Residence in the Hollywood Hills, and something about his work caught the architect’s attention. It was the start of a career in which Shulman documented the work of countless 20th-century architects – from Frank Lloyd Wright to Charles Eames, John Lautner and R. M. Schindler. A few years before he died in 2009 (at the age of 94), he bequeathed a staggering 260,000 negatives to Los Angeles’ Getty Center.
His work captures a moment in time, the modernist movement that began in or around the year of Shulman’s birth – 1910. Modernism was a shift in design perceptions in response to the technological changes of the 20th century – a use of new materials, a shift away from historical precedents and a simplification of forms. As the English artist William Morris famously said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Shulman’s photography created a vision of Southern California’s mid-century lifestyle that was projected around the world. His photographs capture the structure, function and design of buildings in their natural surroundings, and often include the people who occupy them – making him as much a cultural historian as an artist. As he said himself, “I think the photographer can go beyond the artist. I can create a summation of the total image of what was in the architect’s mind, the physical aspects of the structure, and, of course, the spirit.”
At BoutiqueHomes, we know that a beautiful home is even more alluring when it is well photographed. Here’s our choice of Julius Shulman’s most appealing images – the pictures that resonate the most with what we love. The color makes us think of travel – happy,dreamy days spent lounging by the pool. The design opens a capsule and takes us back to another place in time. And the people in the images remind us that, as cool as a house may be, it’s always better when lived in.
Roberts Residence by Weston, Byles & Rudolph -1953. Malibu, California.
William Burgess House. Palm Springs, California
Spring Hotel, Bequia, by Crites & McConnell -1967. St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Leeds Residence. – designed by architect Raphael Soriano. Los Angeles, California
The Mirman House Recreational Pavilion – 1968. Los Angeles, California
Frey House by Albert Frey -1940. Palm Springs, California
Albert Frey – floating dining table suspended by cables from the ceiling. Palm Springs, CA
Frey House by Albert Frey -1940. Palm Springs, California
Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra – 1946. Palm Springs, California
A three-volume expanded collection of Julius Schulman’s works, Modernism Rediscovered, has just been released by Taschen.
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