Product Description

The Master of Modern, More Discoveries from the Julius Shulman Vaults.

TASCHEN's Modernism Rediscovered (2000) brought to light for the first time forgotten architectural masterpieces, drawn from photographer Julius Shulman`s personal archives. Paying tribute to residential and commercial buildings that had slipped from public view, Shulman`s stunning photographs uncovered a rarely seen side of California Modernism. This extensive, three-volume follow-up to that remarkable volume brings over 400 more architectural gems into the spotlight. Not just restricted to the West Coast this time, the images were taken all across the United States as well as in Mexico, Israel, and Hong Kong.

Each project and photograph in these volumes was personally selected from over 260,000 photographs over a two-year period by publisher Benedikt Taschen, who has enjoyed a close collaboration with the photographer since first publishing Julius Shulman: Architecture and Its Photography (1998). Augmenting the photographs are an introduction by photography critic Owen Edwards, an extensive biography by University of Southern California historian Philip J. Ethington, captions on decorative elements by Los Angeles Modern Auctions founder Peter Loughrey, biographies of key architects, and personal reflections from the photographer himself. Arts writer Hunter Drohojowska-Philp conducted months of interviews with Shulman to construct an informative and lively oral history and portrait of the times.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17922 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-30
• Original language: German, English, French
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1008 pages

Review
"The Master of Modern: An Oral History in the Making" - Click here to read the article"

From the Publisher
Featured Architects and Designers:

William Beckett
Craig Ellwood
Albert Frey
Frank Gehry
Bruce Goff
Herb Greene
Philip Johnson
Louis I. Kahn
Raymond Kappe
Pierre Koenig
John Lautner
Paul László
Le Corbusier
Charles Luckman
Oscar Niemeyer
Richard J. Neutra
William L. Pereira
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Raphael Soriano
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Welton Becket Associates
Frank Lloyd Wright

From the Author
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, writes about modern art, design and architecture. She is a regular contributor to Artnews, Artnet, Western Interiors and Design, and the Los Angeles Times and the author of Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe.

Owen Edwards has written about photography for 30 years, for the American Photographer, New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, The Village Voice, Saturday Review, Vogue, Smithsonian magazine, and many other publications.

Philip J. Ethington is Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Southern California and North American Editor of the journal Urban History. He is currently completing a large-format graphic book and online publication called Ghost Metropolis, Los Angeles, 1542-2001.

Peter Loughrey, is director of Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) specializing in 20th Century Design by architects.

Customer Reviews

Shulman Modernism
A fittingly huge tribute to the man who captured Modernism in western America and especially in California. I thought the beauty of these three large books (check out the weight and dimensions in the Product Details section) was the way they are organized: historically using Shulman's own job reference numbers. Obviously there is not going to be a photo of every commission because a lot of his time was spent on what he calls 'bread and butter work'. So book 1 starts with #0003 in 1939 with Gregory Ain's Scheyer residence in LA and book 3 ends in 1981 with #5976 Augustin Hernandez's studio in Mexico City. Although Shulman is working again, with German photographer Juergen Nogai, the contents of the three books are based on the 250,000 negatives he presented to the Getty Research Institute upon retiring in 2004.

I get the impression looking through the pages that there maybe more interior photos than exteriors and what a visual treat these interiors are. In photo after photo there is a sense of spaciousness so typical of most modernist houses and many of the shots show how rooms extend into other living areas.

The interiors from the Forties to the late Seventies also yield a fascinating opportunity to study the furniture and fittings the owners thought would work well in a modern home. Because of the large page size some of these domestic interior photos are twenty-three inches wide on a spread so the detail is amazing. Another interesting point about a Shulman photo is the addition of people in his work. Apparently frowned upon by architects in the past he took the view that it was an opportunity to reduce the purity (and possibly elitism) of Modernism in a domestic setting.

Apart from all the great home photos, commercial work includes: corporate headquarters of large companies, schools, research facilities, banks, retail units and restaurants. The same sense of space and depth comes across in these images and I think you'll come to the same conclusion as I did about Shulman's photography: that he always managed to frame his compositions to captured the spatial essence of a building.

The production of the three books is exemplary as you would expect from Taschen. The hundreds of photos are printed on quality paper with a 200dpi screen and presented in an elegant but simple layout. Each featured commission has between one and six photos with a short piece of background copy. All of this is a wonderful tribute to a remarkable architectural photographer. I know I'll be enjoying these three books for a long, long time.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

A Must for the Mid-Mod Lover
These books were my birthday present to myself, and I can't imagine a better gift! They are GORGEOUS and huge, with full-page photos (some in color) on heavy paper, and text for each spread. The architecture is inspired, and, as always, Shulman's photographs capture the spirit, innovation, and excitement of the times. Too bad such individualism has given way to cookie-cutter McMansions and, with few exceptions, lackluster design seen everywhere in today's architecture.

The only criticism I have of these books is that, as with most mid century architectural tomes, most of the photos in the book are from locations in California by architects we've already heard of. I would like to see photos of buildings in other parts of the country by lesser known, but equally inspired, architects.

Finally, I hope that, with the abundance of photos in Shulman's archive, this Modernism Rediscovered series continues with more books in the future. I know that I will be first in line to buy future volumes if they are as well done as the original Modernism Rediscovered book and these three follow-up books.

JULIUS SHULMANN
This is a beautful huge, very huge book of 3 very large volumes of Julius shulman's photography of mid century architecture. The volumes contain beautiful black & white photographs with some brilliant colour photos of his many homes and buildings he photographed. These books are not your coffee table books , because like l said they are huge and probably need to be read siting on the floor. His photography makes these buildings almost come alive, beautifully presented this book would make a wonderful present to any one interested in mid century architecture. ( boy, color was certainly used extensively in furnishing a home.)