English
The Living Memory of Modernism
By Benedikt Taschen
July 13, 2006
Page [1]
I first saw Julius Shulman’s photographs, almost half a century after they had been taken, in one of our own books, Architecture of the 20th Century. This book was published at the beginning of the 1990s and soon became one of our most important titles. The Shulman photographs - though diverse in their subject matter - stood out so clearly from all the others that I had only to flip through the book a second time to immediately identify them. I was fascinated by the clarity of the composition in his pictures. The exposure was perfect and the staging dramatic - like in a Hollywood movie - with the architecture itself playing the leading role. It became the object of desire and the projection of a better world. Moreover, unlike most architectural photography until then, some of Shulman’s best photographs featured "real" human beings. This was big news...
Back to Hollywood and the year 1994: I thought, this is a man I would like to meet, and so one morning I gave him a call. A friendly voice answered the phone. I introduced myself and he invited me to his studio. Julius Shulman, 84 years old at the time, sat at a desk piled high with letters and magazines. He gave me the warmest welcome and showed me around his archives in the back of the studio. Suddenly the term "vintage" acquired a whole new dimension for me, epitomized by the personality of this man. I asked what he was working on and he produced an extensive manuscript: his autobiography. I inquired whether he had already found the right publisher and when his reply was no I suggested that now he had.
One year later, we published Julius’s hugely successful autobiography and followed up with monographs on Neutra, the Case Study Houses, and a volume on forgotten masters of modern architecture, Modernism Rediscovered. Meanwhile I also became Julius’s neighbor in the Hollywood Hills (his beautiful steel and beam house built by Soriano is right on the other side of the hills where my own house is located). I began to systematically work my way through his archives, looking at every single contact sheet, photograph, slide, and transparency, the output of over 6,000 assignments since the year 1936. His archive, totally undigitized, was in perfect order, and it was extremely easy to find what I was looking for. But what was even more interesting for me was to find buildings I was not looking for, for the simple reason that I did not even know they existed. And Julius, from his studio next door, was perfectly able to give me detailed answers to all my questions about the buildings, the architects, designers, clients, and even the people in the pictures. It didn’t make a difference if the photograph was from Palm Springs in 1945, Tel Aviv in 1961, or Puerto Vallarta in 1975. Julius’s memory was just extraordinary: It was as precise as a computer of gigantic proportions.
It took almost five years until I had dug out the last picture from his archive, with Julius giving detailed comments on my selection. Not only did I have the unique privilege to work with unequaled photographic material, which, for the most part, was in mint condition and offered pristine color. I also had the pleasure of receiving first-hand information on every single image. Working on this set of books - which actually was more fun, than work - seemed like taking a time capsule back to the beginnings of modernism in the 1930s through the 1970s, with Julius being the commander in chief Captain Kirk. I am profoundly grateful for his input and his tireless support, but most of all for his friendship. I hope that these three volumes will contribute to getting the numerous architects and designers, unknown to the masses and working in shadows of their famous colleagues, the recognition they deserve.
Benedikt Taschen, Publisher
Page [1]
July 13, 2006
Page [1]
I first saw Julius Shulman’s photographs, almost half a century after they had been taken, in one of our own books, Architecture of the 20th Century. This book was published at the beginning of the 1990s and soon became one of our most important titles. The Shulman photographs - though diverse in their subject matter - stood out so clearly from all the others that I had only to flip through the book a second time to immediately identify them. I was fascinated by the clarity of the composition in his pictures. The exposure was perfect and the staging dramatic - like in a Hollywood movie - with the architecture itself playing the leading role. It became the object of desire and the projection of a better world. Moreover, unlike most architectural photography until then, some of Shulman’s best photographs featured "real" human beings. This was big news...
Back to Hollywood and the year 1994: I thought, this is a man I would like to meet, and so one morning I gave him a call. A friendly voice answered the phone. I introduced myself and he invited me to his studio. Julius Shulman, 84 years old at the time, sat at a desk piled high with letters and magazines. He gave me the warmest welcome and showed me around his archives in the back of the studio. Suddenly the term "vintage" acquired a whole new dimension for me, epitomized by the personality of this man. I asked what he was working on and he produced an extensive manuscript: his autobiography. I inquired whether he had already found the right publisher and when his reply was no I suggested that now he had.
One year later, we published Julius’s hugely successful autobiography and followed up with monographs on Neutra, the Case Study Houses, and a volume on forgotten masters of modern architecture, Modernism Rediscovered. Meanwhile I also became Julius’s neighbor in the Hollywood Hills (his beautiful steel and beam house built by Soriano is right on the other side of the hills where my own house is located). I began to systematically work my way through his archives, looking at every single contact sheet, photograph, slide, and transparency, the output of over 6,000 assignments since the year 1936. His archive, totally undigitized, was in perfect order, and it was extremely easy to find what I was looking for. But what was even more interesting for me was to find buildings I was not looking for, for the simple reason that I did not even know they existed. And Julius, from his studio next door, was perfectly able to give me detailed answers to all my questions about the buildings, the architects, designers, clients, and even the people in the pictures. It didn’t make a difference if the photograph was from Palm Springs in 1945, Tel Aviv in 1961, or Puerto Vallarta in 1975. Julius’s memory was just extraordinary: It was as precise as a computer of gigantic proportions.
It took almost five years until I had dug out the last picture from his archive, with Julius giving detailed comments on my selection. Not only did I have the unique privilege to work with unequaled photographic material, which, for the most part, was in mint condition and offered pristine color. I also had the pleasure of receiving first-hand information on every single image. Working on this set of books - which actually was more fun, than work - seemed like taking a time capsule back to the beginnings of modernism in the 1930s through the 1970s, with Julius being the commander in chief Captain Kirk. I am profoundly grateful for his input and his tireless support, but most of all for his friendship. I hope that these three volumes will contribute to getting the numerous architects and designers, unknown to the masses and working in shadows of their famous colleagues, the recognition they deserve.
Benedikt Taschen, Publisher
Page [1]
Julius Shulman, Modernism Rediscovered, 3 Vols.
Hardcover, 3 vol. in a slipcase 11.4 x 14.5 in., 1008 pages
$ 300.00
$ 300.00
The revelation of Julius Shulman’s concealed treasures: modernist architecture highlights seen through the eyes of the world famous photographer
Julius Shulman visits with his neighbor, Benedikt Taschen, Los Angeles, 2005. © Eric Kroll
J & B, Chemosphere House, Los Angeles, 2005.
© Howard L. Bingham