Architectural photographer Shulman died

Julius Shulman with his Sinar camera, Los Angeles, 2007.
© Gerard Smulevich

Julius Shulman (* 10 October 1910 in Brooklyn, New York City; † 15 July 2009 in Los Angeles, California), the modern master of architectural photography, has died aged 98 at his Los Angeles home, where he has been living since 1920.

Julius Shulman's long career photographing great architectural works with depth, passion, drama, and an instinct for the architect's intentions has ensured his present status as one of the world's preeminent architectural photographers. According to the New York Times' obituary, Shulman "depicted modern houses as the ultimate expressions of modern living and helped idealise the California lifestyle in the post-war years."

Famous Architects and their collaboration with Julius Shulman
Frank Lloyd Wright felt completely understood by Shulman and often praised his exceptional work. His friend and supporter Richard Neutra († 1970) honored the photographer by illustrating the monography "Neutra - Complete Works" with solely Shulman's fotos. Neutra said of an artist of Shulman's rank, "With one gesture, he may evoke untold illusions ... [he] can and does speak to human souls." Since the late 1930s, in short order Neutra arranged for Shulman to photograph the works of Raphael Soriano, Rudolph Schindler, Gregory Ain, J.R. Davidson, and other colleagues who were pioneering the International style on the West Coast and throughout the U.S. By the 1950s, Shulman was shooting the work of Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. By 1962, when Shulman published the first edition of this guide to the craft and business of architectural photography, his work was inextricably linked with the modern movement in design.

Julius Shulman, Stahl Residence (Case Study House #22), Los Angeles, California, 1960, Pierre Koenig, Architect.
© J. Paul Getty Trust

In a 2000 profile on Shulman in BD, Kester Rattenbury wrote that he was "responsible for some of the most exquisite and influential icons of modern architectural discourse. His photos, say, those of Pierre Koenig's Case Study House No. 22, are often far more famous than the house itself."

Shulman specialised in photographing modernist buildings, working for architects and mass-market magazines like Life, House & Garden and Good Housekeeping as well as architecture publications. "He was the biggest architectural photographer of all times," his representative Craig Krull said. "He transformed architectural photography from commercial status to a fine art form."

Shulman has won several awards during his lifetime including the Architectural Photography Medal from the American Institute of Architects (1969), a lifetime achievement award from the International Center of Photography in New York (1998), and honorary doctorates from various academic institutions.

To celebrate Shulman's 97th birthday in 2007, the German publishers TASCHEN released a three volumne retrospective entitled Modernism Rediscovered, which comprises more than 400 of his photographs. A TASCHEN 25 - special edition -, a new abridged version of Modernism Rediscovered, has been published recently.