Julius Shulman ─ Palm Springs

A visionary artist who has achieved worldwide fame, Julius Shulman transformed the face of architectural photography - has, in truth, changed the very nature of how we see architecture - demanding that his work be so much more than the cold documentation of buildings. From the earliest photographs till those taken today, in a prolific and still vibrant career, his work demonstrates a profound sensitivity to and appreciation for the spaces in which actual people live, spaces that, as seen through his lens, are at once luminous and profoundly shadowed, spaces that are sometimes wonderfully mannered and yet still strangely, deeply personal, spaces of intrigue and ultimately extraordinary beauty, into which the observer - Shulman's passionate audience - longs to enter.
This volume, published in association with the Palm Springs Art Museum to accompany the exhibition, Julius Shulman: Palm Springs, tells the brilliant, decades-long story of the legendary photographer's symbiotic relationship with this oasis of Modernism on which so much of his photography is focused, an architectural landscape the formation of which he has simultaneously observed and helped bring to be.

Michael Stern is a fine artist who creates large-scale illuminated photo-based artworks and installations. He curated the landmark exhibition "Julius Shulman: Palm Springs," which forms the basis of this book. He is the editor, designer, and curator of the Palm Springs Modern Committee’s website. Alan Hess is an architect and architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury News, and author of numerous articles and books, including, for Rizzoli, Frank Lloyd Wright: The Houses, Frank Lloyd Wright: Prairie Style, Oscar Niemeyer Houses, and the forthcoming Frank Lloyd Wright: Mid-Century Modern.