CURATED BY BILYANA DIMITROVA October 5–November 1, 2013 WUHO GALLERY – LOS ANGELES, CA Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery PRESENTED BY WOODBURY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE Published in conjunction with the exhibition Beyond Published by the Assignment: Defining Photographs of Bilyana Dimitrova Architecture and Design, presented by the Julius 63 Sherman Place Ste. E3 Shulman Institute at Woodbury University. Jersey City, NJ 07307 EXHIBITION ITINERARY: Visit www.beyondtheassignment.com for more WUHO Gallery information including purchase information. (Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery) Los Angeles, CA © 2014 Bilyana Dimitrova All rights reserved. October 5, 2013–November 1, 2013 ISBN-10: 0615893236 Publication of this book has been made possible ISBN-13: 978-0-615-89323-5 through the support of Matt Construction, Knoll, Ronald D. Abramson, and Woodbury University School No part of this book may be used or reproduced in of Architecture and the Julius Shulman Institute . any manner without written permission from the publisher. Curator: Bilyana Dimitrova Catalog Editor: Bilyana Dimitrova All photographs reproduced in this book retain Director, JULIUS SHULMAN INSTITUTE: Emily Bills the copyrights of their respective owners. Every DESIGN: Edward Mullen reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners COVER: © Joe Fletcher (Encanto Hotel, Acapulco, of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in Mexico, Miguel Ángel Aragonés Architects) subsequent editions. PRINTER: MagCloud 4 TABLE OF COntents 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMents 12 FOREWORD 14 INTRODUCTION 18 PhotoGRAPHERS 20 Peter Aaron 30 Bilyana Dimitrova 40 Joe Fletcher 50 Timothy Hursley 60 Alan Karchmer 70 Jon Miller 80 Undine Pröhl 90 Tim Street-Porter 100 Lara Swimmer 110 Paul Warchol 126 Index BEYOND THE ASSIGNMENT 5 6 We must assume our responsibility to infuse LIFE into our presentations! ~ Julius Shulman, 2006 BEYOND THE ASSIGNMENT 7 8 BEYOND THE ASSIGNMENTPeter Aaron 9 10 ACKNOWLEDGMents This exhibition and catalog would not have been possible without funding and promotional support from the following: SUPPORTING SPONSORS Ronald D. Abramson INDIVIDUAL SPONSORS MEDIA PARTNERS INDUSTRY PARTNERS Donald Albrecht Abbott Miller Peter Rittmaster Erica Stoller Susan Szenasy A special thank you goes to all of the participating photographers, who donated the prints to the exhibition and shared their personal and professional insight in these interviews. We are grateful for the volunteer efforts of Edward Mullen for the exhibition and catalog design and for the Woodbury University students who gave their time to this project. This project benefited greatly from the professional insight of Donald Albrecht, Nancy Eklund Later, and Pure+Applied. Last but not least, we would like to thank Woodbury University’s School of Architecture and the Julius Shulman Institute for its ongoing support. BEYOND THE ASSIGNMENT 11 FOREWORD EMILY BILLS DIRECTOR, JULIUS SHULMAN INSTITUTE When the Julius Shulman Institute was approached to host an exhibition on the work of commercial architectural photographers we knew this was a project important for us to support. The photography of architecture and design for publication has a history that reach- es back almost as far as photography itself, but the story of how the field developed and continues to contribute to our collective understanding of the built environment has yet to be examined in a substantial way. It is a subject of particular interest to us in part because Julius Shulman himself was a commercial photographer in every sense of the designation. He photographed for print press ranging from forward-thinking architecture journals like Arts & Architecture Magazine to trade journals more concerned with highlighting a partic- ular building material than promoting a masterful image of a completed structure. For a good portion of his career his name, like those of many architectural photographers at the time, wasn’t indicated next to his photographs in architecture journals. It took an outside eye to convince Shulman that his work was appropriate for a gallery exhibition. The work of photographers like Julius Shulman and Ezra Stoller is increasingly identifiable as their own in large part due to the diligent work of curators, historians, and publishers—and often the photographers themselves. In recent years, this attention has been extended to other photographers such as Pedro E. Guerrero and Balthazar Korab who, like Shulman and Stoller, also documented the midcentury period in design. It is time, we believe, to extend that critical focus to photographers practicing today and Beyond the Assignment: Defining Photographs of Architecture and Design is a significant step in opening this conversation. The artists selected for this exhibition represent what curator Bilyana Dimitrova identifies as some of the leading photographers in the field practicing in the United States. Their work spans the last thirty years and, during that time, has contributed to the discourse on archi- 12 FOREWORD tecture and design. Most have been inspired by Shulman’s generation of architectural photog- raphers. All, however, have developed a new, individual language that reflects both their own artistic vision and also the particular approach of the contemporary architects whose work they interpret, often through close dialog with the designers themselves. The photographs featured in this catalog were published in architecture and design magazines that are likely familiar to many of us. Our understanding of who took the photographs and their artistic process, however, is likely not. This catalog provides an opportunity for us to learn more about the people and photographic processes that shape this field of visual culture through unique artist interviews that were conducted specifically for Beyond the Assignment. ABOUT THE JULIUS SHULMAN INSTITUTE The Julius Shulman Institute (JSI) promotes understanding and appreciation of photography of the built environment. Architectural photographer Julius Shulman founded the Institute at Woodbury University in 2005 spurred by his passion for education. His endowment supports students, career artists, and commercial photographers who encourage us to look at our physical environment from a unique and critical perspective. In pursuit of this mission, we offer public programming, including exhibitions, workshops and sympo- sia; disseminate information through publication and diverse © Gerard Smulevich media; support scholarship; and award excellence. Each year the Julius Shulman Institute presents the Excellence in Photography Award to an early or mid-career artist who honors Shulman’s legacy and our mission by challenging the way we look at physical space. Awardees include Iwan Baan (2010), Richard Barnes (2011), Pedro E. Guerrero (2012), and Catherine Opie (2013). As part of our ongoing effort to reach out to the art and architecture community, we team with curators at museums like the Japanese National American Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art who help develop exhi- bitions and forge connections between Woodbury University and the public. These exhibitions have garnered extensive attention in the national and international press. We also support student photographers, most recently by working with the San Fernando Valley branch of the AIA to provide scholarships to winning entries in our JSI Amateur Photography contest. BEYOND THE ASSIGNMENT 13 INTRODUCTION BILYANA DIMITROVA EXHIBITION CURATOR & ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHER I first spoke with Julius Shulman in 2006. I was working as an architectural photographer and had just started part-time as the photo editor of Metropolis magazine. I was working on the magazine’s 25th Anniversary issue, the biggest issue of the year. I was assembling pho- tographs from twelve of Metropolis’ heavy hitters, the key photographers that had helped the magazine disseminate architecture and design to the world for the last twenty-five years. Julius was, of course, one of these photographers and I had to call and ask him to write something about the photographs that he had submitted. I got a two-page hand written fax from him that I still have to this day. Getting to talk to Julius meant a lot to me. His enthusiasm for life and the love he had for his work was infectious, even over the phone. He was proof that if you do what you love, you will love doing it until the end of your days. Similarly, the photographers included in the exhibition Beyond The Assignment: Defining Photographs of Architecture and Design all share a love for what they do and, while on assignment, imbue their photographs with their own curiosity, wonderment and joy. Their images show us how this type of engagement with the subject makes for photographs that hold our attention and can render the built environment unforgettable. The idea for Beyond The Assignment first came to me in 2009 as I was looking through my own archive, selecting images to print and hang in my office. I kept gravitating to images that were not really about the architecture or the design that they represented. They were images that captured my own elation as I found and captured something extraordinary. They expressed my unique experience of the architecture or the design and how it moved and 14 INTRODUCTION inspired me. The realization that I was moved to create these types images while on the job reminded me how much I love what I do. My work serves a function for my clients and the architecture and design community at large, while allowing me to express my creativity, a perfect coming together of work and pleasure. I started to think about why this mutual bene- fit was an important component of my practice, what it added to my work and, by extension, to the larger discourse. I also started to think about the images that turned me onto the field of architectural photography and which photographers were behind them. Quickly a show of these types of images started to evolve and take shape in my mind. I have admired so many of my colleagues over the years and, of course, as a photo editor at Metropolis magazine I was regularly coming across and working with great talent from across the country.