The making of an icon
Case Study Houses. An interview with Julius Shulman, Pierre Koenig, Buck and Carlotta Stahl, Cynthia Tindle and Ann Lightbody
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SHULMAN: I told the girls to stay where you are, you're in the perfect position. I had one raise her elbow up-she was leaning back-and the other one was just sitting comfortably. I set the lights and adjusted a proper exposure. I came back in and said, "We've got a great picture coming up here." I turned off the house lights and replaced them with flashbulbs. With the house dark, the girls were just sitting there talking. I said, "Don't worry that they're in the dark." We wouldn't be seeing them. Then I exposed seven minutes of city night lights, because they were weaker than the light would be inside the house when I took the flash. After I took that exposure I closed the shutter, and my lights were set with flashbulbs. I went back into the house. My assistant turned on the ceiling lights. I told the girls, "When I call to you from the camera, I'm going to say, 'Hold still, keep your pose.' Just keep talking if you want to. At the appropriate time when I call you, a flash will go off".
LIGHTBODY: We were just chatting. We only had dreams at that time.
TINDLE: What we were talking about? Probably Don and Jim. I didn't think, "Oh, gee, I'm going to be in something famous." I'm not a person who likes to have people looking at her. If I had known, I might have been a little nervous about how I looked, or gone out and bought something new for the occasion. Yes, I was in a dress, but in 1960, you didn't go out without wearing a dress. You would never have gone out wearing jeans or pants.
SHULMAN: I built that flash exposure to combine with my already exposed film for the exterior. It's a composite. I altered them to stay put for the quick flash, pose, and click!
STAHL: When anybody comes in the house for the first time, they say, "Are you one of those girls?" Movie companies started seeking the house right away. The first was in 1962, this Italian movie called "Smog". They were making fun of the "rich people" who lived in glass houses. One of the days they were shooting, the view' was too clear, so they got spray and smogged the windows.
SHULMAN: My wife used to say. "After all, it's only a glass box with two girls sitting in it." But somehow that one scene expresses what architecture is all about. What if I hadn't gone outside to see the view? I would have missed a historic photograph, and more than that, we would have missed the opportunity to introduce this kind of architecture to the world.
TINDLE: It's a beautiful house, and it's overlooking Hollywood, which is sensational-it couldn't be a more well-known city. With Ann and I, you can put into our conversation whatever you think we were talking about. We were young and about to start the adventure of life. There were a lot of places you thought you were going, and all the places you didn't.
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Page [1] [2] [3]
SHULMAN: I told the girls to stay where you are, you're in the perfect position. I had one raise her elbow up-she was leaning back-and the other one was just sitting comfortably. I set the lights and adjusted a proper exposure. I came back in and said, "We've got a great picture coming up here." I turned off the house lights and replaced them with flashbulbs. With the house dark, the girls were just sitting there talking. I said, "Don't worry that they're in the dark." We wouldn't be seeing them. Then I exposed seven minutes of city night lights, because they were weaker than the light would be inside the house when I took the flash. After I took that exposure I closed the shutter, and my lights were set with flashbulbs. I went back into the house. My assistant turned on the ceiling lights. I told the girls, "When I call to you from the camera, I'm going to say, 'Hold still, keep your pose.' Just keep talking if you want to. At the appropriate time when I call you, a flash will go off".
LIGHTBODY: We were just chatting. We only had dreams at that time.
TINDLE: What we were talking about? Probably Don and Jim. I didn't think, "Oh, gee, I'm going to be in something famous." I'm not a person who likes to have people looking at her. If I had known, I might have been a little nervous about how I looked, or gone out and bought something new for the occasion. Yes, I was in a dress, but in 1960, you didn't go out without wearing a dress. You would never have gone out wearing jeans or pants.
SHULMAN: I built that flash exposure to combine with my already exposed film for the exterior. It's a composite. I altered them to stay put for the quick flash, pose, and click!
STAHL: When anybody comes in the house for the first time, they say, "Are you one of those girls?" Movie companies started seeking the house right away. The first was in 1962, this Italian movie called "Smog". They were making fun of the "rich people" who lived in glass houses. One of the days they were shooting, the view' was too clear, so they got spray and smogged the windows.
SHULMAN: My wife used to say. "After all, it's only a glass box with two girls sitting in it." But somehow that one scene expresses what architecture is all about. What if I hadn't gone outside to see the view? I would have missed a historic photograph, and more than that, we would have missed the opportunity to introduce this kind of architecture to the world.
TINDLE: It's a beautiful house, and it's overlooking Hollywood, which is sensational-it couldn't be a more well-known city. With Ann and I, you can put into our conversation whatever you think we were talking about. We were young and about to start the adventure of life. There were a lot of places you thought you were going, and all the places you didn't.
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Case Study Houses
Hardcover 15.7 x 12.2 in., 440 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
Houses that were designed to re-define the modern home
Charles Eames: Case Study House #8, Pacific Palisades, California
John Lautner: Malin Residence (Chemosphere), Hollywood, California