“ I`m merchandising architecture ” – Julius Shulman Neil Ward Art

“ I’m merchandising architecture ” – Julius Shulman
Neil Ward
Art History
Summer 2012
Research Paper
Ward 1 JULIUS SHULMAN: MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN FOCUS
Before and immediately after WWII, modern architecture was welcomed by
corporate America but rarely accepted by the public for domestic dwellings. (Rosa, 88) In
the years after World War II, the United States saw an immense population growth as
soldiers were coming back from war and starting families. This created a huge problem
resulting in housing shortages and building materials. To remedy this issue architects
such as Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Raphael Soriano, and Pierre Koenig created
plans for modern prefabricated housing that transferred the modern aesthetic from
corporate to domestic space. Due to the housing shortages, prefabricated houses filled
this need with a low cost, high style, modern aesthetic.
The challenge was to convince society to accept modern architecture (flat roof,
low profile, modular design, glass walls, etc.) as a domestic space. The modern aesthetic
evolved from the International style in Europe and emerged from the Bauhaus and other
European-based design schools. This included the economy of space (such as large open
multipurpose rooms, built in seating and shelving) and materials (exposed industrial
material) and the elimination of detail and ornamentation (Pascal, 12). One can look at
the photos of modern architecture, and see the visual cues that characterized these homes,
such as a flat roof, a low profile, modular design, glass walls, and for some, an utter lack
of curb appeal.
Of the small group of architectural photographers in the United States, Julius
Shulman developed a humanistic viewpoint of the modernist aesthetic that contributed to
the public’s acceptance of modern architecture as a home. Because these homes lacked in
Ward 2 detail and ornamentation they appeared cold and austere compared to the homes of the
1920’s and 1930’s with their Victorian flourishes and Art Deco streamlining. Shulman
brought the human element into these modern glass boxes, by photographing the spaces
with home furnishings, showing how people could live in them. Transforming the spaces
from cold unwelcoming architectural studies to livable furnished spaces that still
showcased the architecture but illustrated a new way of living.
Shulman’s development and contribution was largely achieved through his
photography for the Case Study House program, started in 1945 by John Entenza, Editor
of Arts & Architecture magazine. Immediately after WWII John Entenza, publisher and
editor of Arts & Architecture magazine, embarked upon an ambitious program of
designing and building a series of homes. They were intended to confront the problems of
architects, builders, and potential clients during those hectic years of inflation, shortage
of materials, and financing difficulties. (Architecture and its Photography, 65)
Julius entered architectural photography in 1936 when he accompanied a friend to
Richard Neutra’s, Kun House in Los Angeles and photographed it. Upon reviewing the
photographs Neutra was impressed and hired Shulman to document his other works. In
turn Neutra introduced Shulman to such influential and progressive architects as R.M.
Schindler, Gregory Ain, and J.R. Davidson. Thus, by the end of 1936 Shulman’s logbook
of photo assignments read as a “who’s” who of Southern California architects. (Rosa,
42). In the early years, Neutra directed Shulman on a large number of assignments. This
included the view of the photograph down to the angle of the camera. Shulman absorbed
this direction and over time they reached an understanding that gave Shulman more
creative freedom (Rosa, 49). He never waivered in his acknowledgement of Neutra as a
Ward 3 major figure who first persuaded him, and taught him how to photograph buildings.
(Bricker)
SHULMANS HUMANISTIC VIEW OF MODERNISM
Building on Neutra’s direction of what to include in the frame of his photographs
and camera angle, Shulman continued to document these modern, austere spaces by
including balanced lighting, home furnishings, the relation of the architecture to the
environment and most notably people or “witnesses”. These techniques gave his photo’s
and the architect’s building, a livable, human quality, which defined his humanistic view
of these structures.
LIGHTING
Lighting was an important part of documenting a home. Shulman mentions this in
his 1998 book Architecture and its Photography: light must be respected as the primary
tool of photography. Photographers must realize that textures, forms, color, and scale, are
all specific products of light
control and represent the
manifestation of the ideal in a
photograph (239). For example,
the courtyard photo of Case
Study House #22, image 1,
demonstrates these qualities. The
texture of the carport wall and
overhang of the roof are created
Image 1 – Julius Shulman - CSH#22, The Stahl House - 1960
by contrasts in the shadows
Ward 4 created by the indirect sunlight. The shadows and direct sunlight on the eaves show the
rectilinear form of this home. The sunlight on the pool area also gives dimension and
form to the rectilinear shape of the pool and diving board. While in the background of
this photo, we can see the texture of Los Angeles and the smooth gradation of the sky.
Figure 1 is also an ideal representation of Shulman’s use of light to highlight the
architectural features of a home. Taken midday with the sun overhead, this photo reveals
a lot about the architecture of the home. Here Shulman talks a little about shadows: A
shadow in a photograph is almost subliminal…. [it] echoes the structural elements of the
design and reflects or mirrors the structure onto itself, creating a mood … establishing
an element of recall; that is, the embodiment of structure and form becomes established
in the minds eye (Rosa, 69). Entering the terrace and pool area, the large overhang of the
roof creates a shadow on the path to enter the home. The sunlight shining through the
singular cutout in the roof not only highlights the footbridge over the pool but also brings
attention to this architectural element. Further into the photo the darker shadow
emphasizes the beginning of the second footbridge, putting each piece into perspective in
the mind’s eye and giving the viewer a layout of the home.
The industrial steel material to build the roof is also emphasized both in the
foreground by the reflection of sunlight on the concrete, creating a texture, and again at
the opposite end of the house by the sun reflecting off a beam, creating a razor sharp
sunlit line that speaks to the scale and rectilinear form of the home. Shulman would study
a building in relationship to the landscape and the sun and, depending upon the
orientation of the building, would structure his photographing sequence accordingly.
(Rosa, 70)
Ward 5 When photographing an interior, Shulman feels that technically the primary
photographic need is to ensure that the staged interior lighting produces a subtle balance
with the intensity of the exterior, whether it is a brilliant oceanfront or a soft early
evening effect in a snow covered structure. Therefore, the purpose was to reproduce the
specific mood of each house (264). To
illustrate this point, look at image 2 (CSH 21)
the intensity of the interior is not natural
lighting. In most of Shulman’s photographs,
you will not see the actual light source but
rather the effects of a light source. In this
particular photo, all the interior spaces are lit
up with a consistent brightness. The exterior
lighting is subdued thanks to clouds in the sky.
The lighting in the photo brings attention to
the business and domestic spaces in this home.
Image 2 – Julius Shulman - CSH#21 – 1960
The man is sitting at his desk in his clean,
white office, while the woman has just left the kitchen area with a yellow file that
matches the kitchen cabinets. It also highlights the smoothness of the surfaces within the
home such as the closet doors in the study and the smooth enamel finish of the kitchen
cabinets. It also allows the texture of the loose stone and brick in the pool area, the black
asphalt in the carport, and the white corrugated roof of the exterior to coexist.
Ward 6 SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR SPACES
We cannot talk about the relationship of interior and exterior spaces without
talking about Shulman’s use of perspective. That the photographer often places the
camera in positions which are not normally those from which a building or an interior are
viewed or used, should not be surprising. Shulman often moves a sofa away from the
wall, places the camera behind it, and shows it in context (Shulman, 36).
This relates directly to
contemporary sitcoms and stage
sets. The camera is placed where
a wall should be and we watch all
the action that happens in the
space. Looking at image 3, the
perspective of the camera is a
little higher than that of sitting in
Image 3 – Julius Shulman - CSH#3 - 1949
a chair. This low camera position
makes the room look higher and
gives the illusion of a more expansive floor area (Photographing Architecture and
Interiors, 55). This vantage point is not surprising to viewers, as it might be a view we
would expect to see if we were in the home. From here, we also see the dining table
through the left doorway, and then, to the right through the open doors, we see patio
furniture. This vantage point and composition gives us a proximal location in the home as
well as visual cues such as furniture that tie each of these living spaces together, bringing
the inside out and the outside in.
Ward 7 Furthering this point of combining interior and exterior spaces, take a look at
image 4. This photo is of Case Study House #20, the Bass house designed by Altadena,
Buff, Straub and Hensman. As we have seen in the previous example, Shulman’s
perspective is not surprising and he blends both interior and exterior spaces to be shown
in his photographs.
Image 4 uses a clever perspective, taken at the height of the woman in the
photograph. The lens is placed at the front of the structural beam, bringing the interior
and exterior living space together
by eliminating the barrier of a
door and illuminating the interior
spaces to the same intensity as
the outdoor spaces. The visual
cues, such as the soft lighting and
wood paneling, make the indoor
living spaces appear warm and
Image 4 – Julius Shulman - CSH#20, The Bass House - 1958
comfortable. The weatherproof
white Saarinen chair along, with
the corrugated texture of the roof, signifies the outdoor living space. The red lounge chair
ties in nicely with the red painting on the wall, as well as the red cushion on the Saarinen
chair, giving the viewer a sense of space and proximity to one another. These colors and
textures form the relationship of the indoor and outdoor living spaces.
Ward 8 In addition to lighting, this spatial relationship of interior and exterior spaces and
perspective adds to Shulman’s humanistic view of modern architecture as a domestic
space.
CONSTRUCTION OF A PHOTOGRAPH
Early in his career, an artist friend of Shulman’s studied his work and remarked
that he possessed the uncanny ability to create perfect dynamic symmetry. As Shulman
discovered, his friend meant that he could naturally establish a frame of reference
(Shulman, 11). Aside from this natural ability, a few more things needed to be
constructed when he photographed man made spaces such as landscaping, movement of
furniture and props.
LANDSCAPING
Many of the houses Shulman photographed were almost complete or just
completed, long before any landscaping could develop or furniture could be purchased.
Shulman learned how to remedy this from Richard Neutra, who would collect branches
of trees and plants and hold them over the camera to give the impression that there was
vegetation (Bricker). In a 1990 oral history interview by Taina Rikala De Noriega for the
Archives of American Art, Shulman explains:
“I remember from Neutra. He was always insisting that we photograph his
buildings before they were complete, before they were landscaped. Neutra would come
with a carload of branches and strew them on the ground, have one of his people hold
some branches overhead. And one of the pictures I remember I have Mrs. Neutra's wrist
and hand holding a branch on the edge of the negative. [laughter] Without the branches
the houses would be naked!”
Ward 9 Shulman photographed a
different property, in West
Covina that was again, void of
landscaping. Image 5 shows the
before of this property. He tells
De Noriega that when he showed
up, there wasn’t a stick of
Image 5 – Julius Shulman - House - 1954
landscaping. Not a shrub. He and
an assistant rented five-gallon
cans of roses and geraniums,
whatever they had in bloom —
and set them up in front of the
house and framed the picture
with these plants. He also broke
off a branch from a walnut tree to
fasten to the light stand to make it
look like a mature tree was there.
Image 6 – Julius Shulman – House – 1954
In the final photo (Image 6) the
house looks perfectly landscaped.
Funny story about this shoot, Shulman was working for Good Housekeeping at
the time Mary Kraft, editor of Architecture and Interiors, was quite pleased when she
received this photo. Upon receiving an elated note from her, Shulman made the mistake
of confessing to her that the landscape was manufactured. Her return letter scolded him
Ward 10 and said “Julius, how could you! If I had known that you falsified the landscaping, we
would never have published it!” (Di Noriega)
MOVEMENT OF FURNITURE & PROPS
Generally speaking, the interiors of contemporary buildings tend to be particularly
closely related to the design of the structure as a whole. To convey this fact in a
photograph, it is very necessary to compose scenes relating the two elements. Camera
angles dictated furniture displacement, so the photographer must learn to relocate
furniture specifically for his compositions. (Photographing Architecture and Interiors, 55)
Shulman took it for granted that “furniture readjusting” would be required on a
Neutra assignment. “Neutra would arrive with two men from his office and a few select
pieces of furniture of his own design and a carpet or two.” Two men would remove the
furniture Richard did not want in the photo (even down to the draperies if it disrupted the
interior/exterior relationship of
the house with the landscape)
(Rosa, 48). Shulman “the
photographer is the director and
producer of each frame” hence
the author of each photo. It is
commonly known that
photographers, architects, and
designers often bring props such
Image 7 – Julius Shulman – Maslon House – 1963
as furniture, objects and art to an
assignment. These objects provide the idealized image of the architecture. Shulman refers
to this aspect of preparing a photograph as “dressing the scene” (Rosa, 85).
Ward 11 Shulman, as his daughter
Judy McKee explains, also did
this: My father would carry half
of our household furniture around
with him, for props. My father
wanted to make it look like
someone actually lived there
(Bricker). To illustrate this point,
Image 8 – Julius Shulman – Maslon House – 1963
look at image 7 + 8, the Maslon
House, designed by Richard Neutra. On the shoot, Neutra removed most of the art and
furniture (Rosa, 51) resulting in an austere photo (Image 7) that focuses more on the
architectural elements such as the exposed steel beams, the curtain glass wall, the flow to
the exterior of the house, and the textures of the floor. Shulman went back two weeks
later (image 8) and re-photographed the same space the way Mrs. Maslon lived in it,
focusing more on delineation of space and how it can be utilized.
INCLUSION OF WITNESSES
Witnesses, as Esther McCoy mentions in her 1989 Essay “The Persistence of
Vision”, was the term given by nineteenth-century architects for people they included in
their architectural drawings to give scale to their buildings. Many of Shulman’s
commercial and domestic photographs include visual ‘witnesses’ who illustrate how the
spaces could be used. (Rosa, 88)
Ward 12 “I want to show architecture being functional, and I use people in all sorts of ways
in my photographs. The moment a person appears in the picture, it entices the audience of
the photo to see another dimension of the architecture: as it appears to the people who
live and work in the house” (07 Voice). With the inclusion of witnesses, it brings the
austere modern aesthetic to something that is warm and livable.
Shulman felt his most successful case study photograph was CSH 20, mainly
because there are people in it. “The young lady had a cocktail glass in her hand; I had her
raise that glass. It makes all the difference in the world where her glass was placed” (07
Voice). Spontaneous action is the prerequisite
(Photographing Architecture and Interiors,
103). Image 9 shows CSH #20, the Bass house,
in color. This photograph without the witnesses
would still showcase the architecture and
Shulman’s constructed frame, but it would lack
the human element. The idea is that it is not
staged for a photograph; rather it is a home that
people can, and do live in. All of these
combined to create Shulman’s humanistic
Image 9 – Julius Shulman
CSH #20, Bass House – 1958
viewpoint on the modern aesthetic.
ACCEPTANCE OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE AS A DOMESTIC SPACE
Still, the challenge remained to convince society to accept the streamline modern
aesthetic (flat roof, low profile, modular design, glass walls, etc.) as a domestic space. By
including witnesses in his humanistic view this also helped sell or “merchandise” (07
Ward 13 Voice) the architecture. The moment a person appears in the picture, it entices the
audience of the photo to see another dimension of the architecture: the architecture as it
appears to the people who live and work in the house (07 Voice).
This was largely achieved in his photography for the Case Study House program
which spanned from 1945 to 1966, and was created by John Entenza, Editor of Arts &
Architecture magazine (Smith, 7). Shulman constructed his photographs with witnesses
to express and sell the lifestyle that accompanied modern architecture. Shulman notes:
“ I have always used people in my photographs, It is not just a matter of scale; it is a
matter of bringing life to a scene… [the Greenfield house] had his and her
workshops, all the accoutrements of 1950’s living.. in [one] photograph, the woman
is all dressed up making jewelry… in another photo her husband is throwing a pot.
The photographs were intended to show the “orderliness” of modern living, with the
architecture as the key to a new lifestyle. People who live in a house can experience
it, but the photographs show them, as well as others, how to “see” it. (Rosa, 88)
Let’s take a look at image 10
+ 11, the Greenfield house, of the
woman creating jewelry in her
modern home and her husband
throwing clay in his studio. The
inclusion of implied human
activity in the space tells the story
of how this modern space can be
Image 10 – Julius Shulman – Greenfield House – 1950
Ward 14 occupied and used by its inhabitants. This
made the homes seem more comfortable to
the average American “consumer”
paralleling trends in television and magazine
advertising which people illustrated in “their
homes” (Rosa, 90).
Now let’s take a look at three Case Study
Houses (20, 21, 22) that embodied the
lifestyle and the promise of a new and golden
modern life in Southern California
(Goldenbarger).
Image 11 – Julius Shulman – Greenfield House – 1950
Image 12 shows a woman in the kitchen
of Case Study House 20, the Bass house, preparing food dressed in a skirt and heels.
Showcasing how this space can be used, along with the relation to the living area on the
other side of the counter. Upon
further inspection of the photo,
we can see she is slicing an
orange with a potato peeler.
Shulman certainly was creative
with his props!
Image 13 shows two young
women sitting and engaging in
Image 12 – Julius Shulman – CSH#20, Bass House – 1958
conversation as the view of Los
Ward 15 Angeles twinkles in the background of Case Study House 22, the Stahl house. This is one
of the most iconic images of the Case Study
House program (Smith, 69) and of his
signature style — a combination of
elegance, personality, and preciseness,
which was at its best when in harmony with
the optimism and lightness of modernism
(Lubbell, 112).
The power of this image still resonates
with Paul Goldberger, architectural critic for
The New York Times: “In 1960 the
Image 13 – Julius Shulman
CSH #22, Stahl House – 1960
architectural photographer Julius Shulman
took a picture of a glass house perched high
in the Hollywood Hills that will always be, for me, one of those singular images that sums
up an entire city at a moment in time. The house is sleek and white, and its glass walls
are cantilevered out over the hills; two elegantly dressed women lounge inside as the
lights of the vast sprawl of the Los Angeles basin twinkle below. Modernity and elegance,
privacy and openness - things that so rarely went together in the older cities of the East
Coast - here become one, bound together in a way that epitomizes the seductive power of
Los Angeles in the first years of its heady postwar growth.”
Ward 16 This photo in particular successfully sold the lifestyle that went along with the
modern architecture of southern California. That brings us to the last illustration of
selling the lifestyle of modern architecture.
Image 14 shows a husband and wife in the
living room of Case Study house #21, created
by Pierre Koenig. True to constructing a
photograph, Shulman said in the 2007 film
SHELTER, “We put this couch here, the model
posed, I observed her ring, ring in focus, the
husband - parked the car, putting music on,
making a cocktail. - A domestic scene”, each
part of the photograph illustrating activity in the
space. The placement of the couch and woman
Image 14 – Julius Shulman – CSH#21 – 1958
in the foreground signifying marriage, which
leads our eye to the husband, who is putting on music and fixing himself a cocktail, then
a slice of the automobile in the carport indicating his recent arrival home.
All of these CSH photographs convey a sense of mood, and tell the story of each
home in a relatable manner that reached broad audiences across the United States from
1945 – 1966 through Arts & Architecture magazine among other publications.
Ward 17 CONCLUSION
Even though it was a challenge to convince society to accept the modern aesthetic as
a domestic space, Shulman succeeded by learning how to construct a view of each home
that could relate to the buying public.
His iconic photographs of these Modern homes not only capture the essence of these
structures, which made a number of architect’s famous, but also captured the essence of
the lifestyle in post war Southern California.
These photographs of California have become memory images for us. They embody
the modernity, myths, and realities of the landscape as well as a lifestyle that has become
equated in the minds of Americans and Europeans alike with the essence of the west
coast (Rosa, 102). Decades later we still look at these photographs and marvel about the
period of possibility and optimism of Los Angeles that Shulman captured with his camera
and published internationally.
Ward 18 BIBLIOGRAPHY
07 VOICE OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER Julius Shulman. 2009. Film.
Bricker, Eric. Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman. NEW VIDEO
GROUP, 2010. Film.
De Noreiga, Taina Rikala. “Oral History Interview with Julius Shulman, 1990 Jan. 12Feb. 3 - Oral Histories | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.” Web. 28
July 2012.
Entenza, John. “The Case Study House Program.” Arts & Architecture Jan. 1945: 37-43.
Print.
Goldberger, Paul. “ARCHITECTURE; When Modernism Kissed The Land of Golden
Dreams - New York Times.” New York Times. Web. 21 July 2012.
Lubell, Sam, and Douglas Woods. Julius Shulman Los Angeles: The Birth of a Modern
Metropolis. Rizzoli, 2011. Print.
Pascal, Patrick, David Gebhard, and Julius Shulman. Kesling Modern Structures:
Popularizing Modern Design in Southern California 1934-1962. 1st ed. Balcony Press,
2002. Print.
Ward 19 BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTINUED
Rosa, Joseph, and Esther McCoy. A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of
Julius Shulman. Rizzoli, 1999. Print.
SHELTER - Julius Shulman. 2007. Film.
Shulman, Julius. Photography of Architecture and Design, The. 2nd pr. Watson-Guptill
Publications, 1978. Print.
-----. Julius Shulman: Architecture and Its Photography. First ed. Ed. Peter Gossel.
Taschen, 1999. Print.
----. Photographing Architecture and Interiors. New York. Whitney Publications, 1962.
Print.
Smith, Elizabeth A. T. Case Study Houses. 25 Jahre TASCHEN. Taschen Deutschland
GmbH+, 2009. Print.
Ward 20 IMAGE LIST
Image 1
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 55
1960 – Case Study House #22 – The Stahl House, Los Angeles
Pierre Koenig
Image 2
Case Study Houses. Pg 64
1960 – Case Study House #21 – West Hollywood
Pierre Koenig
Image 3
Case Study Houses. Pg 15
1958 – Case Study House #3 – Los Angeles
William W. Wurster and Theodore Bernardi
Image 4
Case Study Houses. Pg 63
1958 – Case Study House #20 – The Bass House - Pasadena
Altadena, Buff, Straub and Hensman
Image 5
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 84
1954 –House – West Covina
Cliff May and Chris Choate
Ward 21 IMAGE LIST CONTINUED
Image 6
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 84
1954 –House – West Covina
Cliff May and Chris Choate
Image 7
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 53
1963 – Maslon House – Cathedral City
Richard Neutra
Image 8
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 53
1963 – Maslon House – Cathedral City
Richard Neutra
Image 9
Case Study Houses. Pg 60
1958 – Case Study House #20 – The Bass House - Pasadena
Altadena, Buff, Straub and Hensman
Image 10
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 89
1950 – Greenfield House, Los Angeles
Arthur Swab
Image 11
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 89
1950 – Greenfield House, Los Angeles
Arthur Swab
Image 12
Case Study Houses. Pg 62
1958 – Case Study House #20 – The Bass House, Pasadena
Altadena, Buff, Straub and Hensman
Image 13
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. Pg 55
1960 – Case Study House #22 – The Stahl House, Los Angeles
Pierre Koenig
Image 14
A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman. pg 19
1958 – Case Study House #21 – Los Angeles
Pierre Koenig
Ward 22