More than anyone else, it was architecture photographer Julius Shulman who had captured through his lens the glamour aspects of mid-century California modernism, and the lifestyle associated with its architecture. Shulman, who, himself lived in Los Angeles, famously forged close relationships with the local leading Modernists, such as Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and R M Schindler, who allowed him to enter into the private lives of those living in the pristine, glass houses they designed. Shulman’s brilliant photographs were widely published during his time, bringing the message of California Modernism to an international recognition, and today, they have come to shape the perception of style and design during the age of Mad Men. His 1960 photograph of architect Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #22, in fact, is one of the most famous architectural photographs of the twentieth century, embodying the ideals of postwar optimism and and American glamour (above). Like many of his photographs, this one was commissioned in order to sell a building to potential clients. Now, Julius Shulman’s work is to be found in a newly-published three-volume ‘Julius Shulman: Modernism Rediscovered’ by Taschen, allowing us to revisit the utopian venture of California Modernism with its famed pristine, well-ordered, and prosperous lifestyles engendered by the new architecture and the photography to the masses.
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