The Chronicler of American Modernism Comes to Drexel

Architects like Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler and Pierre Koenig created the houses that defined California modernism, but it was photographer Julius Shulman who infused them with an irresistible glamour. His softly atmospheric, black-and-white photographs, like this one of the Kaufman Desert House by Neutra, perfectly captured the mood and the times, as well as the architecture. As anyone who has ever flipped through Architectural Record knows, few photographers are capable of conveying a whole world in a single image.

Shulman stumbled into architectural photography in 1936, and believe it or not, he is still active. Frank Gehry pressed him into service after his Guggenheim Museum was completed in Bilbao. Now Drexel University's Mark Brack, an architectural historian, has convinced him to make a stop in Philadelphia to share his photos and anecdotes. The 95-year-old photographer will display his prowess with PowerPoint at a guest lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in Drexel's Bossone Auditorium, 32nd and Market Streets. The lecture is free and open to the public. For those who can't make it to Shulman's retrospective at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, it's a great opportunity to see a survey of his long career.