Produced by Eric Bricker
Cinematography by Dante Spinotti and Aiken Weiss
Edited by Charlton McMillan
USA, 2009, distributed by Arthouse Films, color, 83 min.
Program Notes
Chale Nafus
Director of Programming, Austin Film Society
The July 2005 issue of W magazine featured a 58-page portfolio
of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie posing, in retro fashions, as a 1963
suburban couple with five
children. The setting is a Palm Springs Mid-Century modern home with
appropriate furniture and décor. Among the images of marital bliss
turning sour is a recreation of the famous Julius Shulman photograph
set in Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House No. 21: a couple in a living
room, where the man – in a suit, of course – stands before a hi-fi set,
ostensibly about to put on an LP, while closer to the camera is a woman
– his “wife,” most likely – sitting on a
long couch. The furniture and architecture of the rooms – several more
are visible through open double doors in the background – are the focus
of our attention, while the man and woman make the room less austere
and more livable. However, the purpose of the Jolie-Pitt photo is quite
different, even while paying homage to Julius Shulman and his wonderful
ability to immortalize Mid-Century modern homes and décor. Seated on
the near end of a small couch, Angelina is even closer to the camera.
Slightly farther away but still very identifiable even without a
caption, Brad is making martinis, not changing a record. There is an
undercurrent of disagreement between the couple, suggested by Jolie’s
gaze directed at her upturned hand and fingernails – a “whatever” kind
of gesture, as Pitt looks over his shoulder at her hand, his face
without a smile. Here, in 2005 it is the power-couple that is the focus
and the surroundings are simply a context, a “set.” Even the double
door behind them is closed so that our eyes can’t wander down the hall.
No matter the underlying drama and mission of this more sinister
postmodern replication of an iconic photograph, the nod to the artistry
of Julius Shulman is admirable.
The world is so fortunate
that Julius Shulman decided to take up architectural photography rather
than fashion or celebrity photography. There were/are enough of the
latter, whereas Shulman was able to carve out a unique niche in
architectural photography, almost single-handedly creating the genre
and elevating it to a fine art through his keen vision. To say
“Mid-Century modern architecture” is virtually a guarantee of having a
Shulman photograph in mind. And now we are fortunate that filmmaker
Eric Bricker has created the scintillating and deeply informative
documentary VISUAL ACOUSTICS: THE MODERNISM OF JULIUS SHULMAN.
Born in Brooklyn 10 October 1910, Julius Shulman was the third of four
children of Russian-born Jewish immigrants Yetta and Max Shulman.
Before Julius was even two years old, the family moved to a farm in
Connecticut, a place which instilled a love of nature in the young boy,
a love which would stay with him forever no matter how many glass,
steel, and concrete buildings he would eventually photograph. That
appreciation of nature would actually fit quite well with the evolving
design of California modernist homes and buildings, which began to
virtually erase the line between indoors and outdoors. Drawn to Los
Angeles by an economic boom (oil and movies) in 1920, the family moved
once more, but this time to their financial improvement. They lived
east of downtown in a polyglot neighborhood of recent immigrants –
Boyle Heights. There the Shulmans opened the New York Dry Goods store
and began to prosper. Even after the death of Max in 1923, the
family continued operating the store and thriving. While taking a
photography class at Roosevelt High School, Julius captured much of his
beloved city in photos. After graduating in 1928, he attended both UCLA
in Westwood and UC Berkeley, but even after seven years of college, he
exited with no degree. Interested in so many things, he just couldn’t
focus on one major. In 1936 he returned to Los Angeles, where a
marvelous fate awaited him.
A new friend invited Julius
Shulman to come see the Josef Kun residence just completed by architect
Richard Neutra, one of the forefathers of Southern California
modernism. Going up into the Hollywood Hills, Shulman took his tripod
and a Kodak Vest Pocket 120mm camera and almost immediately began
taking pictures of the stunning home. Choosing a variety of vantage
points, he captured the striking beauty of its stark white surfaces struck
by sunlight. Shulman’s friend showed the photos to Neutra, who was
ecstatic. He said that the young man had captured “his own design
goals” for the home and hired him to photograph other buildings he had
designed. Shulman’s life and profession were established almost in an
instant.
Neutra happily introduced Shulman to other
proponents of the modernist architectural style that was finding
fertile ground in Southern California. Sunlight and nature called for
inclusion in their design plans. Within just one year Shulman got more
commissions for photographing buildings designed by modernist
architects R.M. Schindler, Raphael Soriano, Gregory Ain, as well as
Neutra. Through his talent and acute eye, Shulman learned to emphasize
“strong geometric compositions, high contrast, sharp focus, and
evenly-exposed interior and exterior spaces.” Such images were perfect
for specialist architecture and design magazines and mass-circulation
periodicals like Time, Life, and Look.
Richard Neutra was a
terrific self-promoter and, together with Shulman, was able to get his
designs into magazines and into the consciousness of those who
could afford high-end architects with new ideas. But the two artists
often clashed. Neutra was aghast when Shulman showed up for one photo
shoot with a truck full of furniture – straight out of Shulman’s home –
and some models. Neutra wanted the magazine reader to see the pristine
architecture, the openness, and clean design of windows, walls, floors,
ceilings. Shulman wanted to make it appear that people actually lived
in the Neutra house. That aesthetic decision changed the look of
architectural photography and created a mighty lust for modernist
homes, especially of the California kind.
1945-1966, Case Study houses
In the January 1945 issue of the influential Arts and Architecture
magazine – a pacemaker for Southern California modernism – John Entenza (publisher/editor)
announced the creation of the Case Study program, a kind of “contest”
which would support the creation of well designed modernist homes for
the “typical postwar family.” Industrial materials (steel, glass,
fiberglass, poured concrete) were to be employed with an emphasis on
integration into the natural setting and devoid of useless decoration.
The utopian aspect of modernism was first established with the Bauhaus
movement in Germany in the 1920s, but by the 1950s it was obvious that
Southern California modernism had evolved into a personal utopian
vision for relatively wealthy clients instead of the “typical postwar
family,” who would have to make do with tract houses in the
ever-spreading suburban sprawl.
Initially the Case Study
houses were most at home in the hills overlooking Hollywood and in
other luxuriantly green areas featuring mountains in the background.
Between 1946 and 1966, 23 Case Study houses out of 32 winning
submissions were built (plus one apartment building out of two
proposed). These residential gems would become the defining images of
the new modernism, eventually to be dubbed Mid-Century modernism
decades later. As testimony to their beauty and sound structure, 19 are
still extant, while the other four were demolished or (overly)
remodeled.
Shulman’s photos captured all of the glory of the
Case Study houses. The shocking appearance of a transparent residential
“container” precariously perched on the side of a hill overlooking Los
Angeles became “the look” of Southern California. People throughout the
world saw Shulman’s images and wanted
to live there, to live like that, to be king of the hill and able to
see the kingdom from many vantage points. Those glass boxes with flat
roofs seemed to defy Nature, including earthquakes and mudslides. One
could imagine walking in those spaces and feeling like gravity no
longer mattered – no Wile E. Coyote plunges here. You could seemingly
walk on air, while calmly sipping on a martini and gazing at the
sparkling lights of the “lesser beings” down below. Many new careers
were probably started in such spaces of power, whether in the Case
Study houses or the thousands of other similarly designed residences
that began to pop up in the Hollywood Hills and beyond.
Perhaps the most iconic of these homes is Case Study #22 designed by
Pierre Koenig and located at 1635 Woods Dr. in West Hollywood. Buck and
Carlotta Stahl have lived there since its construction in 1960 and the
interior views of the home in Bricker’s documentary are exhilarating.
We can almost feel like we are inside Shulman’s immortal photos of that
home after it was first built.
Palm Springs
Shulman had such a keen eye that, in addition to photographing and chronicling
the changes brought to Southern California architecture, he became
known as a “talent scout and tastemaker.” Besides the wonderful
structures in the Los Angeles basin and hills, he realized that a
revolution in desert architecture was taking place in Palm Springs,
where a postwar boom in building weekend homes and retreats had put the
resort town on the map for wealthy and influential Southern
Californians. Shulman knew the area well, long before its development
as a resort, for in his teens he had often camped out there.
Architecture and Environment
Shulman had always loved nature and was an early proponent of
architecture aware of its natural surroundings. But as his beloved Los
Angeles continued spreading out every direction, he became concerned
about what was happening
to the environment. Freeways, cars, smog, and ugly urban sprawl began
to dishearten him. As the environmentalist movement gathered momentum,
Shulman continued being a strong voice for architecture which related
to the environment through good design choices.
Travels
By the 1960s Julius Shulman was the world’s foremost architectural
photographer, continually invited to many countries by emerging and
already famous architects, including Oscar Niemeyer, master architect
of Brasilia, the brand new capital of Brazil, and Abraham Zabludovsky
of Mexico. Shulman loved traveling and seeing the new architecture that
was rising in Latin America.
Postmodernism
What Shulman did not like was the emergence of postmodern architecture
in the late 1960s. He hated its “emphasis on wit, ornament, and
historical reference.” He thought the newer architects taking up the
postmodern banner were nothing more than fools. He succinctly described
the new style: “Postmodern architecture is to architecture as female
impersonation is to femininity.” However, there were exceptions. Just a
few years ago Shulman was happily photographing Frank O. Gehry’s
astoundingly beautiful and provocative Walt Disney Concert Hall in
downtown Los Angeles. As he examined the interior and exterior, he
realized he was looking at a building design influenced by the acoustic
needs of a performance space – visual acoustics. The exterior was
determined by the interior, an attitude beloved by progressive
architects since Frank Lloyd Wright, another of Shulman’s heroes.
A New Appreciation of Mid-Century Modernism
In the late 1990s, perhaps in reaction to so many postmodernist ironic,
even cynical, architectural creations, some younger people began
looking back at the 1950s and early 60s, with an appreciation for the
simplicity and optimism of Southern California modernist styles.
Unfortunately by that time many modernist homes had fallen into
disrepair or, worse, had been torn down for something newer. Some
wealthier members of this younger, hipper generation did their best to
preserve the architectural gems. The purists brought the homes back to
their original look, but with better materials than were available
40-50 years earlier.
Those who were looking back longingly
began to discover that the iconic photos of the homes they were
beginning to appreciate and covet were more often than not taken by one
man. Shulman’s photos served as inspiration and guide to
reconstruction. Taschen began republishing books of Shulman’s
photographs in the late 1990s. This helped mythologize “the man who
mythologized the buildings.” It was only at the beginning of the 90s
that he had even had a gallery exhibit of his photos “in a “fine art
context,” 54 years after his first architectural photo.
Shulman’s Legacy
Even during his lifetime Julius Shulman has had the pleasure of
realizing the importance of his legacy. He and Los Angeles grew up
together and he captured the most beautiful aspects of it with his
camera. Artist Ed Ruscha says, “Shulman helped create the essence and
ethos of this city.” With his vast archive of images now safely
preserved at the Getty Museum, itself an architectural wonder perched
in the hills, Shulman was still actively speaking [until his recent death] in museum settings
about his work and Southern California modernism and those who created
it. He even supervised photo shoots as he neared the age of 100. What a
remarkable testimony to the creative spirit that burned so
very brightly within this delightful man.
Eric Bricker, director of VISUAL ACOUSTICS
Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was active in music and
theater and saw lots of movies with his grandmother, Bricker somehow
knew that he would eventually live in Los Angeles. But first he
attended Indiana Univesity where he received a B.A. in English
Literature with a minor in Theater. He then went into acting with the
California Repertory Company and the Utah Shakespearean Festival before
settling in Los Angeles. There he “turned his focus toward film and
television production where he worked with such notable talent as Jerry
Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin and Danny Aiello.” He was also able to continue
his musical interests by playing percussion “with the likes of Lula
& Afro-Brasil and Perry Farrell at Coachella Festival.” But how to
bring all these interests together? Producing and directing his own
film projects became the answer.
While pursuing this new
passion of filmmaking, he also created an art consultation firm,
Artistic Designs Unlimited (1996), where the emphasis was on
“developing an understanding of client’s spatial needs and translating
those specifics into original works of art.” While working on a project
in 1999, Bricker was searching for vintage photos of San Francisco (not
Los Angeles) and was Bricker and Shulmanironically
led to Julius Shulman. The friendship with the elderly photographer
seemed instantaneous. “Recognizing the extraordinary amount of humanity
and profundity Shulman and his work possessed, Eric put into motion his
inspiration for VISUAL ACOUSTICS.”