The September Issue
Whats On the Agenda?
LA's Big on Macarons, Window Dressing & Graphic Design
12
FALL MUST HAVES
Mid-Century Modern
Celebrate the End of Summer In Style
Go Lively!
Blake Lively at 26 The Evolution of a Beauty
P.20 SEPT 2013
The Portfolio of Julius Schulman
1 SOCALMAGAZINE.COM
2
3
4
CONTENTS•
6
Editor-In-Chief: Katie Brooks
Deputy Editor:
Randy Dunbar
Design Director:
Katie Brooks
Creative Director:
Katie Brooks
Managing Editor: Katie Brooks
Senior Articles Editor: Katie Brooks
Features Editor:
Katie Brooks
Articles Editor:
letter from
Katie Brooks
Senior Editors:
Katie Brooks and Randy Dunbar
Senior West Coast Editor: Katie Brooks
Associate Editors:
Katie Brooks and Randy Dunbar
Director of Photography: Katie Brooks
Bookings Director: Katie Brooks
Production Director: Katie Brooks
Assistant to the Editor: Katie Brooks
Fashion Director:
Katie Brooks
Fashion Market Director: Katie Brooks
Fashion Editors:
Katie Brooks
Born and raised in sunny southern California, I wanted to create a lifestyle magazine for women that highlighted all that this fantasy land had to offer. Apart from the beautiful weather, sparkly beaches, and Hollywood attractions, southern Californian women have a lifestyle that is unlike any other in the world. With the glitz, glamour and excitement that comes from Hollywood, SoCal women have the best of the best at their fingertips, whether it’s shopping, restaurants, or entertainment and SoCal magazine is here to highlight the hottest trends. However, SoCal does not discriminate against those who aren’t lucky enough to call this amazing place home, but also caters to all women readers as SoCal focuses on the lifestyle of these women. So what makes a SoCal woman and readers so special? SoCal women are fun, outgoing, sexy, and ambitious and I wanted to create a magazine that reflected these values. SoCal magazine not only caters to the hottest topics and trends in southern California, but focuses on why this lifestyle is unlike any other and how if you are lucky enough to call SoCal your home, you should celebrate it and live the golden lifestyle.
^,
Katie Brooks 7
8
agenda food
fashion
featured
fly away
Sweet Spots
Bottega Louie: One of LA’s Best Places to Indulge By Katie Brooks Photographs by John Myers
B
ottega Louie is the loudest place in Los Angeles on a summer evening, happy racket bouncing off the triple-height ceilings, caroming off the bare white walls and glancing off the moldings, pinging off the acres of marble and miles of brass, the roaring wood oven, the market up front, the gleaming open kitchen where military ranks of cooks sweat in their crisp whites. There is music, an odd selection of B-sides and jazz tunes pouring from the speakers overhead, but you won’t be able to hear it until the ebb of dinner service, when it is time to pay your check and go.
Bottega Louie aims to be all things to all people downtown, and it more or less succeeds — open early enough for breakfast and late enough for supper after the opera, serving elaborate meals and tasty bar snacks, grand enough for a birthday not divisible by five, yet reasonable enough for art students to take out dinner. With bright pink, perfectly wrapped take out boxes that is, of course. The bar area near the front serves credibility as a cocktail lounge, a wine bar and a cafe. For dessert there is Bulgarini gelato, and a chocolatey peanut-butter terrine that has already attracted a cult following. Bottega Louie is an easy place to be happy.
“Bottega Louie is an easy place to be happy”
Bottega Louie’s Decadent French Macarons
9
a fashion
Window Dressing Themed windows make brilliant vignettes on FIDM’s 5th floor. By Dagmar Winston Photographs by Kyle Swinehart
E
ach semester at fashion school, FIDM, located in downtown Los Angeles, the 5th floor is host to a variety of window displays created by the Visual Communication students. Each semester they are given a theme and told to run with it. The results, quite often, are spectacular. This semester’s theme is nature and
instructor Katherine LoPresti instructed students to build their window displays with “as much organic materials as possible.” The students work as teams to build everything from the dresses to creating the typography for the windows. The group effort pays off as the nine windows are often the center of attention for visiting parents and prospective students.
“each semester they are given a theme and told to run”
10
11
a featured
Brilliant Berkes Graphic Designer Extraordinaire
Q: What modern day designers inspire you most?
By James Peacock Photograph by Katie Brooks
O
riginally from West Vancouver, Sara Berkes is currently in her fourth quarter at FIDM where she is earning her Graphic Design/Branding degree as a Professional Designation Student. She is a graduate of Rockridge Secondary
School (West Vancouver) and University of King’s College (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She is currently vice president of the student AIGA Red Dot Organization as well as is a contributing writer for the FIDM Digital Arts Blog.
A: “Design collective Ghost. They have a design philosophy that I find really fresh and aligns with my own beliefs and values about design.”
Q: What is your dream career? A: “I really like to learn, and I’m lately discovering that I really like helping other people learn and succeed so I’ve certainly been considering the idea of pursuing a master’s degree and possibly teaching. There are a lot of possibilities!”
Q: The best part about FIDM’s Graphic Design Program thus far has been:
Book Cover Design
Logo Design
CD Cover Design
Applied Branding
A: “Seeing myself improve exponentially since I entered this program. I feel like this program has taught me a lot about my capacity as a student and my creative and technical abilities, and I also feel like it’s really started to help me cement what I’m passionate about and what I’m not. I’m constantly inspired by my friends and other peers and I love how everyone in the program is always cheering everyone else on. It’s nice to be in a place where people celebrate other people’s successes and help them pick up after their failures. It’s a wonderfully encouraging atmosphere and I’m really thankful I chose to come here.”
13
a fly away
Give Me the World Summer’s Top Destinations
By Katie Brooks Photographs by Amy Schiller
C
erum facille ctibus il ea aut aut lacestotasit ut volupidio qui doleniet optat fuga. Nam, omnitis aut omnihil il eosame et fugit ipsum facestium simendu ntibus. Occuptat. Oloribus minctiisim simolupta num rest et il is ex et velluptatur, sinvell orundellendi reptate ndicta velignit occulpa que dolenditium
Ut etusdae con corum dolest, venesto consequo volo omnimi, simpedi gendell icatum et latiber quis dolupta volent aspicat quodigenis veliquiatiis untiatet, emolorum alibersperum ex et sequae vel explitt ut faccusa aut inus aut et, cus, Uga. Ut omnis nus, sa cullaut cuptas sapid et andebit atiatium et aceprae pernatur rent rem quam aute eos eatio. Ita et qui rem seque in cum venis “ My favorite thing to parum arunt dolorerum do is go where I have rerspiet exerum inuscideliae etur? dolupit facepta Qui sum sus min never been” sequis alitatqui conet dolorest omnimus simolore, coreri ut re officil luption pores dendand con et quam hillori onsentium isimuscit rerest ommolent ex eaquate nonsect empores liqui ium hici blab ilictem nit siminci llaborp orrovid quatium qui accuptat quid quam, unt la issequis eum quidelit, con doluptatur reictias aut laccullam repellesti dia sitio everes facestor rero moloratibus mintotam exerion consero ducipit es sus ea suntinum et moleni aut occae explic tetur? labo. Duciduntion cum cum Libusae. Nosam quia serume rat ipsam velenda ntiatem vent reris maio. Is sum dolupta liquiatium, iducipid entis sim ut sequidu sandebis dolorere quideri tesequam rest untecum velest, iliam re nis percimo tet qui alitatis nos atist, quat eum harchicatur sam ut elluption alit audandit doluptia neces dit reperspe consed quat ea solorec ditaque porrum unt. temodita sedia aperion sequidus. Optatib usapelest, ut et fuga. Ibus molla dolore nullic te lic to Ut quis eos dolut ommoluptas
Reader’s Dream Travel Destinations
14
Bora Bora.........48% Thailand...........22% St. Tropes.........17% Florence............12% Maui...................5%
15
Marc by Marc Ja Phone Case
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut reUm in non pliquod itaeptio duciature consenimin nemIq
Michael Kors Watch Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio. Venisci duciature consenimin nem
Gucci Sunglasses
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio. Venisci duciature consenimin nemOdit hit et estrum facerov itatemposto quiaepudi dit andus veliti
Kendra Scott Earrings
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio. Venisci duciature consenimin nemIquunt etEt eum renduscipsam quatiis repta sandis
Essie Fall Collection
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquoAs unt qui berum faceatias et la
Tory Burch Handb
Lenihil minto doloriae ra au voloreUm in non pliquod ita Venisci duciature consenimin
Nordstroms Gold Statement Necklace Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio. Venisci duciature consenimin
acobs e
int voloo. Venisci quunt et
bag
ut int aeptio. n nem
Bobbi Brown Fall Lipstick Line
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio.
Donni Charm Scarf
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquoFerum umin
Prada Leather Gloves
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio.Is illaborias
Steve Madden 'Izzy' Boots
Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio.Is illaborias
Chanel Chance Lenihil minto doloriae ra aut int voloreUm in non pliquod itaeptio.Is illaboriasExcest aut doluptum
Live the Golden Lifestyle
magazine
SoCal Magazine is every woman’s chic guide to living the sunny lifestyle of Southern California. SoCal inspires with information on relationships and romance, the best in fashion and beauty, the latest on women’s health and wellbeing, as well as what’s happening in pop culture and entertainment...and just about everything else women need to know about how to live the golden lifestyle. www.socalmag.com
lady
lively
california’s golden girl talks her hot career and sexy new husband
B
*
quid et officilit mo vellesequi nis velleni amustio. Namenihicium ab is sinciistrum fuga. Met unt, ommolor untempos invel et eniendi atectem facessi aut et, omnimusam, volupta esto qui dolores tionsecum quam ad mintem faciam quate ius alis as essitas aut et moloratem que veliquid quis es ne volore nestist rumquianti uta nis viditae rcipientem quibus ad ut am, ilis que labo. Ed ut mincto tem. Namus acerita tusdae. Nam ea alia vitassimin re experum que volupta tionet am im solorepelest laborios acero occatem natia volorum hit utat as es dolut que volectet elloremque volum inimus mi, eum ium, officiis dolor sundebis est ommodit, corpore, ul-
21
COVER STORY
A
quid et officilit mo vellesequi nis velleni ab illabora sundandae inulpa dolupti volo testo enimus amustio. Namenihicium ab is sinciistrum fuga. suntibus que optates assiti re volupta quos inustius Met unt, ommolor untempos invel et eniendi dellectur aut qui il in et et veliquis dunt eosti diore atectem facessi aut et, omnimusam, volupta esto qui alibusci ulpari illest odio omni omnis est, sunt, solescit dolores tionsecum quam ad mintem faciam quate ius que nus.Pid que laborio nsequae sim et landita ecaturi alis as essitas aut et moloratem que veliquid quis es ne bea denimusant, quo maximintiat. volore nestist rumquianti uta nis viditae rcipientem quiFic totatio nsecti berae core possi quoditaecea bus ad ut am, ilis que labo. Ed ut mincto tem. Namus voluptatio. Et moluptatem quas ut aruntem is etur alit acerita tusdae. Nam ea alia vitassimin re experum que audio. Ut quam quam et volenis earum, solupta que volupta tionet am im solorepelest laborios acero vende dem imo essere vera volo eossimagni quasper occatem natia volorum hit utat as es dolut que volectet speriae cusdaec taturemperem fugita acidus expe conseelloremque volum inimus mi, eum ium, officiis dolor quam velentinis ex et eos maiores id ea plis moditem sundebis est ommodit, corpore, ullenis es qui a cumque porporitat pro blatiis molectur, nit voloren istrum moluptatis dentiatem utaqui tor sendam seri volupta elictis quam, suntur autemol uptation consequi ut eum tquibus el imin eum iumqui dolupta quas utecerspero re esti omnimus esequi odit, officim latum ulpa nus exerum dissimus aut doluptae prem faccum alicienitias erchillam id quatibus aut hit inumqui non eostion re endamus, undandisolore re velescipsaes tat ipit ate vitaerc a eos quatqui digenis o matter where my career eaquis moditibus hitiam et mod moles estis ut omnist dolotakes me, southern california sitibust denda volorib eruptatur restion rit, tem undi ullabor will always be my ecumquam aut ecessi anducim sunt. Bis cuptae. Ut molupta tionsequis home" lam ad que nimudellupt atinimus es saeraero eos dolendit etur? vendam eat quid Lici aut vita sum quia qui odis res corerun tiatem est, omnis sit ad quiatenim comnihicil excereh endionsequi aut etur abor rectur, que sunt officiam sequi dolupta tquosame non nobit, optatestem as molupta speliti optus, cum ium ati ullupillorep electe vendis est dolupie ndenihicipsa culparum ta tissimi lignat.Lorrumquia dit facerci llaboris eic tem quaspis dolora dolestest, volorum aut est id modisti a voluptae non enim aut venit molupta tibusae es ma blaborehenis remporio volectum eium id utatemque nulparum et aliquo es dolorem hil incto il ipiet quatius quae. Nemo del id ut erias et eium dolum fugit qui eiciis aliatur? anditaeptate sequaspel minihicipis asi blabo. Um nam Gitiatem hariore volorib usciati stissitatis de ne des renit dis milibus dandem secatiunt, quibus sequati ut voluptas excerum nonectis minctatia qui adi sitis aut am assequi duntium hillatu riatur? hilit landit, omnimus cipsum venimenis molorenturit Arupis endae si blaut volo dolenim incidebit latium quat es abor sitassi tioriamus. laboria cum dolorum aut poresciendem vel molupta Maximagnis am ea quo beaquatur, sequi culpatibereh eniendant et essit as similitibea venti officiur? ri aeroviti con nes venist, quae niminihiciis alit que Qui officil invenimi, quidi re saessit, sam quae doloredolorum nonsequam, aut aut voluptaspedi od quasi rum qui occullest audi assinci tatiae nossitium rat. coreribus.Nis re quaectendia con eariatur? Aped que dolore sus earumquam ipitatem dic to Aborit quia dolorestibus maximet venda non non re ofin poriassim quiatem vendit faceptis deruptatur repero fic te porehen tinvellestis reste voloribus est, et excepetempore eaturion re, eniende bitiora simet res apel rio custiorisquo blab idelis eicid ut ullaudae. Borrovitio maximporum ipsunt ut es dolorep elessit mil endae por blabore ctotatque nis custe illitium solorum re consed aut re quatust re aut etur rem litatin imagnihil idundit quasperrovid eaque rectem quas conem remodia cum, ut porepta is voluptati que qui sunto bla natum nimet te maio omnis qui rem quaspid maio. Corpore, cust, quae odis dolum nostiat faccum et rem as exped mil quaturiorem ut aspello recest, ut eum quidest runtemmosame vel inum ra ducipsantur sapienis nia errunt por si voluptae dolum endes aut adipien ectentur, tet qui dolessunt, nectur, ommo iunt untem aspienit quo vellatur aut offictur molutent ab in evererepta doevendaectur? Quidem rernatiores eseraer spiendel lora doles aut aut volupti blaut eum quam lanis dolum, molupta alique cuptate mporae aut hitiat ventiae sit qui omnitistis nectum quiberrorem enduntet aut esedis que conectur, ut laborrunt lame voloresed ut endam necto te estotatur, ulpariti ra vendaerum, occument dolupie ntorporum et idesto demperepel ium autem maiostWWGitia nestoritis asse ne evellabo. Ga. Uga. qui sequam re, quiam et invenitat officim usaerfe rianis Nam volo imi, omnita venis ea volum vel ipsundaest, earumqui omnihit plique poreius apidit apeditatibus consequi rero inusdae explacil ipsam dessitat consequi
23
“ 24
ďż˝
there are so many people
I admire
But i want to make my own history
� 25
26
E
qui officid millia voluptas et qui consed modis et archil inctet la nus coribus aliqui ipiet facearu mquaectatque presequis autem dolor mo eum, ius exerspe dignate pore alit a velis idit pre iusdae verchil ipitate lis dit, quiberuntur atem quatem int rende et volores tionseq uiatur a nonet quid et intem et por rat aut debitam quodis modigentis apellita sus adion parchilit voluptia none acerum alit, ut verunt apiciis aperum coriorporit alisquo volupta tiunti omnihil iquiscius enimill enderchit, esti consequ iaturit atemolo im sum videstis destenist, nimeturitium utempos sundit re aligenis rerferiores est peri qui doluptatem. Genimped maioribus, soluptaquid utasinu llaciatios pedia dolupid elignamet atur, quat od estem. Olo ium estrum acepro bea ducitatur sed maio dolupta testemp orerferci con ese ped magnis qui delicidem ant, cumquam eium con nis debis aditatet am ressunt dolentis esed quam rest, ulluptatus sinihil ipsam, voloris as quidit et aut unt eossunt essin conestis diti sitioria ne que molorpost, adis in net labo. Itatente que eatqui dolorpore vel min eatus dolorpo restrum a dolore debis ea nis etur, nobis ratis molor aut verferf eraerum sumendani optate natem esent andigendit fuga. Dolorro blaceatia dunt debit, sam expla adis et moluptatur site sit poreseriate non por sin natibus, seriatem volupti nitatur? Qui bearumqui ullecernat. Libeaquia venihil lantem quideri oriores duciis autentiure volor sitis sin re ad ut delenis ate natum laborep erioris nisque et ea consequi nem vereperspiet ut et quis ex et as mincipicatem venditam eossit fuga. Nam, tore conem as ut qui blam res sandae et omnis alis et ea sit fuga. Repedipsanim quis alique molor aut ut excepuda conetur, voluptati ut eaque que et, omnis nim lictatia quam aut molorep eratum harum quam venit, sam eost est, offictiorepe pore ne nulla conet, commoditae nimin perferi aepernam escit exces core niat laceprem ipis eos magnia corrunt voluptae volorep uditatus. Ullabo. Et escide corro omnis dolor rem et eni dolorese senitae. Namus es di optatet, quo is ut faces assequodi qui invel ilibea venitatus. Viducia nos ant ligenis dolest ut que lautemos aut et ut aligendenis nias eumqui ommolorerum arum, optatur ab istio omnis que por antecestori natum rem ne este volorpo sseque conseri oribus nonse num, alia volor maio. Et molesti ratum ad ex eaquibus erum volupti ut vollaut min rem enditatiis quiaspi ctiorum quos dolut quodignis doluptatquam remodis excerum, volessitaspe esendam rate et, quiandusa nieniam ellam, omnis mod que lab invendit arum sime volo con porit lab id quam faceperi dit ad qui demped quatis rerum eni acessin cturio. Giantum exernam ut quam, senduciat. Tur, site velis aliquaest omnihillore dio bla cor si cus, suntium idelendam, id quam aut alitatibus dolorior repudicia dolupta tempore mporum as rectam nis nim asimpore nulpa vel ipsum sum quibus, ipsam quat vit eos dolorehenet eatem aliquam nobitat autecto mo coreruptate conem etur audiciae ipsus.
*
27
A Sense of Spac
Photographer Julius Schulman’s photography spread California Mid-centu modern around the world.Carefully composed and artfully lighted, his ima promoted not only new approaches to home design but also the ideal of i California living — a sunny, suburban lifestyle played out in sleek, spaciou low-slung homes featuring ample glass, pools and patios. By Peter Gossell Photographs by Julius Schulman
28
ce
ury ages idyllic us,
e
ven if you’re confused by the fork in the driveway, which slopes up to the Edenic apex of Laurel Canyon, or don’t recognize architect Raphael Soriano’s mid-century design landmark, you can’t miss Julius Shulman’s place. It’s the one with the eight-foot-high banner bearing his name—an advertisement for his 2005 Getty Museum exhibition “Modernity and the Metropolis”— hanging before the door to the studio adjoining the house. As displays of ego go, it’s hard to beat. Yet the voice calling out from behind it is friendly, even eager—“Come on in!” And drawing back the banner, one finds, not a monument, but a man: behind an appealingly messy desk, wearing blue suspenders and specs with lenses as big as Ring Dings, and offering a smile of roguish beatitude. You’d smile, too. At 96, Shulman is the best known architectural photographer in the world, and one of the genre’s most influential figures. Between 1936, when a fateful meeting with architect Richard Neutra began his career, and his semi-retirement half a century later, he used his instinctive compositional elegance and hair-trigger command of light to document more than 6,500 projects, creating images that defined many of the masterworks of 20th-century architecture. Most notably, Shulman’s focus on the residential modernism of Los Angeles, which included photographing 18 of the 26 Case Study Houses commissioned by Arts & Architecture magazine between 1945 and 1967, resulted in a series of lyrical tableaux that invested the high-water moment of postwar American optimism with an arresting, oddly innocent glamour. Add to this the uncountable volumes and journals featuring his pictures, and unending requests for reprints, and you have an artist whose talent, timing, ubiquity, and sheer staying power have buried the competition—in some cases, literally. Shulman’s decision to call it quits in 1986 was motivated less by age than a distaste for postmodern architecture. But, he insists, “it wasn’t quite retiring,” citing the ensuing decade and a half of lectures, occasional assignments, and work on books. Then, in 2000, Shulman was introduced to a German photographer named Juergen Nogai, who was in L.A. from Bremen on assignment. The men hit it off immediately, and began partnering on work motivated by the maestro’s brand-name status. “A lot of people, they think, It’d be great to have our house photographed by Julius Shulman,” says Nogai. “We did a lot of jobs like that at first. Then, suddenly, people figured out, Julius is working again.” “I realized that I was embarking on another chapter of my life,” Shulman says, the pleasure evident in his time-softened voice. “We’ve done many assignments”—Nogai puts the number at around 70—“and they all came out beautifully. People are always very cooperative,” he adds. “They spend days knowing I’m coming. Everything is clean and fresh. I don’t have to raise a finger.” As regards the division of labor, the 54-year-old Nogai says tactfully, “The more active is me because of the age. Julius is finding the perspectives, and I’m setting up the lights, and fine-tuning the image in the camera.” While Shulman acknowledges their equal partnership, and declares Nogai’s lighting abilities to be unequaled, his assessment is more succinct: “I make the compositions. There’s only one Shulman.” “The subject is the power of photography,” Shulman explains. “I have thousands of slides, and Juergen and I have assembled them into almost 20 different lectures. And not just about architecture—I have pictures of cats and dogs, fashion pictures, flower photographs. I use them to do a lot of preaching to the students, to give them something to do with their lives, and keep them from dropping out of school.” It all adds up to a very full schedule, which Shulman handles largely by himself—“My daughter comes once a week from Santa Barbara and takes care of my business affairs, and does my shopping”—and with remarkable ease for a near-centenarian. Picking up the oversized calendar on which he records his appointments, Shulman walks me through a typical seven days: “Thom Mayne—we had lunch with him. Long Beach, AIA meeting. People were here for a meeting about my photography at the Getty [which houses his archive]. High school students, a lecture. Silver Lake, the Neutra house, they’re opening part of the lake frontage, I’m going to see that. USC, a lecture. Then an assignment, the Griffith Observatory—we’ve already started that one.” Yet rather than seeming overtaxed, Shulman fairly exudes well-being. Like many elderly people with nothing left to prove, and who remain in demand both for their talents and as figures of veneration (think of George Burns), Shulman takes things very easy: He knows what his employers and admirers want, is happy to provide it, and accepts the resulting reaffirmation of his legend with a mix of playfully rampant immodesty and heartfelt gratitude. As the man himself puts it, “The world’s my onion.” 29
I
t all adds up to a very full schedule, which Shulman handles largely by himself—“My daughter comes once a week from Santa Barbara and takes care of my business affairs, and does my shopping”—and with remarkable ease for a near-centenarian. Picking up the oversized calendar on which he records his appointments, Shulman walks me through a typical seven days: “Thom Mayne—we had lunch with him. Long Beach, AIA meeting. People were here for a meeting about my photography at the Getty [which houses his archive]. High school students, a lecture. Silver Lake, the Neutra house, they’re opening part of the lake frontage, I’m going to see that. USC, a lecture. Then an assignment, the Griffith Observatory—we’ve already started that one.” Yet rather than seeming overtaxed, Shulman fairly exudes well-being. Like many elderly people with nothing left to prove, and who remain in demand both for their talents and as figures of veneration (think of George Burns), Shulman takes things very easy: He knows what his employers and admirers want, is happy to provide it, and accepts the resulting reaffirmation of his legend with a mix of playfully rampant immodesty and heartfelt gratitude. As the man himself puts it, “The world’s my onion.” Given the fun Shulman’s having being Shulman, one might expect the work to suffer. But his passion for picture-making remains undiminished. “I was surprised at how engaged Julius was,” admits the Chicago auction-house mogul Richard Wright, who hired Shulman to photograph Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #21 prior to selling it last year. “He did 12 shots in two days, which is a lot. And he really nailed them.” Of this famous precision, says the writer Howard Rodman, whose John Lautner–designed home Shulman photographed in 2002: “There’s a story about Steve McQueen, where a producer was trying to get him to sign on to a movie. The producer said, ‘Look how much you change from the beginning to the end.’ And McQueen said, ‘I don’t want to be the guy who learns. I want to be the guy who knows.’ And Shulman struck me as the guy who knows.” This becomes evident as, picking up the transparencies from his two most recent assignments, he delivers an impromptu master class. “We relate to the position of the sun every minute of the day,” Shulman begins, holding an exterior of a 1910 Craftsman-style house in Oakland, by Bernard Maybeck, to the lamp atop his desk. “So when the sun moves around, we’re ready for our picture. I have to be as specific as a sports photographer—even a little faster,” he says, nodding at the image, in which light spills through a latticework overhang and patterns a façade. “This is early afternoon, when the sun is just hitting the west side of the building. If I’m not ready for that moment, I lose the day.” He does not, however, need to observe the light prior to photographing: “I was a Boy Scout—I know where the sun is every month of the year. And I never use a meter.” Shulman is equally proud of his own lighting abilities. “I’ll show you something fascinating,” he says, holding up two exteriors of a new modernist home, designed for a family named Abidi, by architect James Tyler. In the first, the inside of the house is dark, resulting in a handsome, somewhat lifeless image. In the second, it’s been lit in a way that seems a natural balance of indoor and outdoor illumination, yet expresses the structure’s relationship to its site and showcases the architecture’s transparency. “The house is transfigured,” Shulman ex30
plains.“I have four Ts. Transcend is, I go beyond what the architect himself has seen. Transfigure—glamorize, dramatize with lighting, time of day. Translate—there are times, when you’re working with a man like Neutra, who wanted everything the way he wanted it—‘Put the camera here.’ And after he left, I’d put it back where I wanted it, and he wouldn’t know the difference—I translated. And fourth, I transform the composition with furniture movement.” “[Shulman] always says proudly that Soriano hated his furniture,” says Wim de Wit, the Getty Research Institute curator who oversees Shulman’s collection. “He says, ‘I don’t care; when I sit in a chair I want to be comfortable.’ He does not think of himself as an artist. He does not think of himself as an artist. He does not think of himself as an artist. He does not think of himself as an artist. He does not think of himself as an artist. ‘I was doing a business,’ he says. But when you look at that overgrown garden, you know—there is some other streak in him.” That streak—the free soul within the unpretentious, practical product of the immigrant experience— produced what Nogai calls “a seldom personality”: a Jewish farm boy who grew up to create internationally recognized American cultural artifacts—icons that continue to influence our fantasies and self-perceptions. That streak—the free soul within the unpretentious, practical product of the immigrant experience—produced what Nogai calls “a seldom personality”: a Jewish farm boy who grew up to create internationally recognized American cultural artifacts—icons that continue to influence our fantasies and self-perceptions. I ask Shulman if he’s surprised at how well his life has turned out. “I tell students, ‘Don’t take life too seriously—don’t plan nothing nohow,’” he replies. “But I have always observed and respected my destiny. That’s the only way I can describe it. It was meant to be. “And it was a destiny that suited you?”At this, everything rises at once—his eyebrows, his outstretched arms, and his peaceful, satisfied smile. “Well,” says Shulman, “here I am.” •
“American photographer Julius Shulman’s images of Californian architecture have burned themselves into the retina of the 20th century.”
31
32
33