Julius Shulman

Julius Shulman – From autodidact to master of architecture photography

Julius Sherman was born in Brooklyn, New York on 10 October 1910. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrant, he grew up in the country around Connecticut before moving with his family to Los Angeles. He was interested in photography from an early age, and whilst aimlessly trying out various courses at university, he earned some pocket money selling photographs to friends. In 1936, a chance acquaintance who worked as a construction draughtsman in the architectural office of the Austrian star architect Richard Neutra asked him to take photographs of a newly built estate that Neutra had designed for the journalist Josef Kun. Neutra was so pleased with the result that he immediately hired Julius Shulman for further assignments thus enabling him to enter the field of architectural photography. Shulman opened his own photo studio in Los Angeles in 1950 – an artist who had acquired his photographic knowledge as an autodidact and had never undergone any real training. 

Shulman’s pictures established the fame of many architects

Julius Shulman subsequently photographed numerous buildings by great architects and contributed to their fame. As well as Richard Neutra, who illustrated his entire catalogue raisonné with Shulman’s pictures, these included illustrious such names as John Lautner, Frank O. Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright and Pierre Koenig. For the latter, Shulman documented, among others, the Stahl House (also known as Case Study House No. 22), that Koenig had built in 1959 for the former football player C.H. ‘Buck’ Stahl. The minimalist house high above the roofs of Los Angeles quickly became an icon of modern architecture, also thanks to Shulman’s photographic reappraisal, who achieved a hitherto unheard-of effect not only through his choice of perspective, but also through the skillful inclusion of two female models. Case Study House No. 22 is probably Shulman’s most famous work, but the number of buildings that owe their fame to his photographs is countless. Even his patron Neutra recognised that Shulman’s photographs of his architectural achievements would surpass and outlast his architectural achievements – photographs are simply easier to store and transport than steel and concrete.

Shulman wanted to make visible the magic of architecture

Julius Shulman presented his photographic work in numerous exhibitions and was also the subject of Eric Bricker’s documentary film in which the Hollywood star Dustin Hoffmann illuminated the life and works of the star photographer. In 2006, he was honoured with a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. Shulman made a point of never altering the architecture in his pictures, but merely enriching them with a ‘magical’ quality through perspective and accessories, so that every viewer would immediately have the desire to live in them. That is why people often featured in his pictures, animating the building. Julius Shulman retired for a time, but returned in 2000 to work with the German architectural photographer Jürgen Nogai. Even after he sold his entire archive to the Getty Research Institute, Julius Shulman could not let go of photography.

Julius Shulman died in Los Angeles on 15 July 2009.