Visual Acoustics
With our lives having become so fast-paced that they are practically chaotic, it is not surprising that house design and decoration trends have looked back to the clean, sleek styles and functional form of the modernist era.
The Modern architecture movement owes as much to photography, as it does to the designers at the vanguard of this popular and enduring style of building and design.
Photography aided in the dissemination of design projects and ideas, and, indeed, architectural photography is considered to be a specialised field. Architectural books grace the shelves of art lovers alongside books of painters.
One of the most esteemed photographers of this genre, was Julius Shulman, who died only recently (July, 2009), aged 89. Even though he had been in declining health, and had not worked for some time, for lovers of architecture (and photography), this was a sad loss, and the passing of an era.
Shulman began working with Richard Neutra in the 1930's. Throughout his long and distinguished career, he chronicled the work of just about every major modern architect, including Frank Gehry, John Lautner, and, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright. His immense catalogue now resides with the Getty Images archive, and has been published by the esteemed Taschen publishers.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, an architectural experiment was undertaken in which designers devised houses that embraced modern design, while also being reasonably priced, and efficient. Shulman's photograph of the Pierre Koenig's Stahl House (also known as Case Study House NO.22), is, perhaps the most iconic image of modernist architecture. Another, is the image on the cover of the DVD: the Guggenheim Museum.
Visual Acoustics not only celebrates the outstanding work of Julius Shulman, but also reveals a genuinely loveable, surprisingly humble, man.