So proficient in his craft that he was known as “one-shot Shulman,†architectural photographer Julius Shulman enjoys a light moment during a 2005 shoot at the Fitzpatrick House, originally designed by architect R.M. Schindler, in L.A.’s Mount Olympus area. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Shulman continued taking assignments, working with his collaborator, Juergen Nogai, into his mid-90s. The pair are seen here scoping out a shot in the Fitzpatrick House in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Shulman explains a shot to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in 2002 after being commissioned to photograph the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Julius Shulman’s 1960 photograph of Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House No. 22, shown hovering above the Los Angeles grid, is among the most famous architectural pictures ever taken in the U.S. It was, an architecture critic wrote, “one of those singular images that sum up an entire city at a moment in time.”
“You can practically hear the Sinatra tunes wafting in the air and the ice clinking in the cocktail glasses,†one writer said of Shulman’s photos of Southern California architecture. Here’s a 1947 photo of a Richard Neutra-designed residence, Kaufmann House, in Palm Springs.
A 1954 photograph of the photographer captures Shulman staging a shoot of the May House in Los Angeles. (Julius Shulman / J. Paul Getty Trust)
Shulman’s photo titled “The Castle (Los Angeles, Calif.)†freezes in time the expansion of downtown L.A. in the mid- to late ‘60s as the Union Bank building shadows the final few homes on Bunker Hill.
Julius Shulman arrives at the Annenberg Foundation’s Space for Photography opening night gala in the Century City. (Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images)