Julius Shulman. Image © Gerard Smulevich. Courtesy of the Julius Shulman Institute/Woodbury University School of Architecture

Architecture and photography are two disciplines whose relationship has blossomed into visual documentation used repeatedly for reference, inspiration, and research. While there are many architectural photographers whose work has been exemplary in presenting the public with a glimpse into the world of architecture, Julius Shulman remains an industry icon and pioneer in the field. Since 2005, the Julius Shulman Institute (JSI) has acted as an important bridge for Woodbury University to connect the public with the disciplines of architecture and photography. To learn more about the JSI, its history, and its mission, I spoke with Woodbury University's Julius Shulman Distinguished Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the JSI, Barbara Bestor. 

"Our goal is to change the way Architecture and photography of the built environment are understood and presented in our culture and museums," shared Bestor. "It's rare for there to be an architecture department in any given museum. On top of that, photography is often a subsidiary of art and painting in the collection. Architecture photography doesn't have a consistent home, and we thought that building a vibrant discourse with the Shulman legacy could be a place to start creating that home." 

The esteemed Los Angeles-based architect has become synonymous with California architecture. Her work within academia and professional practice are matched by her passion for supporting photographers and their stories through the JSI. During our phone call, she spoke on the importance of representation within architectural photography, expanding perspectives, and creating pathways for photographers to connect with the public.

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 symposia; disseminate information through publication and diverse media; support scholarship; and award excellence.

I wanted to bring people back into the conversation of architecture photography. — Barbara Bestor

Before my conversation with Bestor, I explored the work of former JSI Excellence in Photography Award winners and exhibitions. The Julius Shulman Institute has been an essential extension of Woodbury University since its inception. Each featured photographer and their work weave together a dialogue between the built environment and a captured moment on camera. Beyond the laundry list of famed photographers, Shulman himself, and the iconic Barbara Bestor, we can't forget about the JSI's collaborators. 

Bestor made sure to highlight the role and impact of former Woodbury University School of Architecture Dean and Director of the WUHO Gallery Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter. Bestor explained Wahlroos-Ritter's support towards the JSI has been extraordinary. "She's really the co-sponsor of these exhibitions and a massive cheerleader for curating architectural content and reaching out to the community." Ingalill acted as producer for many of the JSI events and exhibitions, ranging from fundraising and financing the exhibitions and associated events, to outreach and marketing, and working with Bestor to identify award winners each year. The activities of the JSI are part of a broader social justice vision that Ingalill had for Woodbury School of Architecture. Bestor's response called me back to a previous Archinect interview with Wahlroos-Ritter in 2017. During that conversation, she explained, "curating and producing exhibitions is a unique form of leadership with a broad-reaching impact on the cultural milieu."

As I dive further into the ethos of the Julius Shulman Institute, what strikes me is the collective efforts and leadership of individuals dedicated to creating a space that did not exist for architecture and architectural photography at the time. "I wanted to bring people back into the conversation of architectural photography," explained Bestor. "In 2008, I was the founding chair of Woodbury University's School of Architecture Graduate program. During that time, Shulman was almost 100 years old, had sold his archives, and gave a generous endowment to the school: one of my jobs was to figure out how to honor his legacy." This is where my conversation with Bestor begins. She explained why the Julius Shulman Institute is influential and why exhibiting the relationship between architecture and photography is important.

From Analog to Digital: Echoing Shulman's Legacy 

With advances in camera technology, image augmentation, and sharing, the practice of architectural photography has transformed over the years. The internet and social media platforms like Instagram allow the public to interpret and interact with the built environment differently. It prompts a new dialogue with how individuals can interpret architecture and architectural landscapes. While there are pros and cons to this interpretation, Bestor stated, "How does photography engage with the moment we're in? There is this overlap between photographs of the built environment and how it is seen in the world of fine art and commercial art. This is a unique issue in contemporary architecture, and I wanted to find a way to exhibit around it."

How does photography engage with the moment we're in?

Since the JSI's inception, its mission was to create a platform that honored Shulman's impact and expand the idea of how the public could engage with architectural photography. "In a sense, Shulman was someone who brought California and the modern architecture of the West to the world at large. If we expand on that original work in photography of the built environment, we can create something new that operates differently when it's spread throughout media," explained Bestor. As she continued to explain the JSI's efforts to manifest Shulman's legacy, I inquired about her role as its Director, using exhibition as storytelling, and how to re-connect audiences with the photographers who were missed or excluded from the spotlight of conventional media.

Katherine Guimapang: What led you to become the director of the JSI? Were you always fascinated by architectural photography?

Barbara Bestor: I’m always interested in representation in architecture, and today many people see and experience architecture and public space through images they see online. By contrast in the past, there was a strong emphasis in architectural education to send students out on “treks” and tours to see and experience the real thing. Seeing landscapes and buildings in their environment are different from images but the image distribution creates a more egalitarian form of and access to education. Architecture and photography as art forms are fairly accessible, perhaps not perceived as "elitist" in the way that paintings and fine art sometimes are. Perhaps because of this, architectural photography has had the ability to let more culture in, changing to reflect the contemporary moment, the zeitgeist.

Architectural photography can explore different ideas about the world and environment. The discourse around photographing the man-made environment is cultural and expansive: ranging from anthropology to abstraction. This is part of the kinship between architecture and photography. As a small cultural non-profit, the JSI has been able to hold one or two exhibitions per year with a tactical edge that would be difficult in a larger institution. We have created exhibits around the true stories of architecture that were never told because of architecture's patriarchal history, which has very few stories and images in the canon that aren't centered on non-white men. Take our Catherine Opie or Pedro Guerrero exhibits, for example. Catherine is one of the most important artists in the US, and her portraits of America speak to many disparate ideas of Architecture. Pedro Guerrero is one of the most prolific architectural photographers of the 20th century, whose rise and rise within architecture photography was parallel to Shulman's, but he came from an immigrant farming community, and his story and photographs hadn't been widely told until our exhibition.

Architecture and photography as art forms are fairly accessible, perhaps not perceived as 'elitist' in the way that paintings and fine art sometimes are. Perhaps because of this, architectural photography has had the ability to let more culture in, changing to reflect the contemporary moment,  the zeitgeist.

Once a public exhibition is reviewed by any press, the show and the artist enter the digital culture and become searchable in the digital search engines. Showing this work now [...] makes their work accessible to the following generations.

The social context of architectural photography as exhibition has so many layers people might not think about, especially now that the very nature of architectural exhibition has bridged into the digital space.

Once a public exhibition is reviewed by any press, the show and the artist enter the digital culture and become searchable in the digital search engines. This work of talented but overlooked photographers and artists becomes accessible to the following generations. It's a huge issue because almost all of the architects, photographers, and designers who were written into mainstream media in the 20th century were white. Simply because that's what the media did, excluding women and minority groups until very recently. The value of showing and creating public profiles of these photographers and designers through the JSI has created much more subtext. It has also led to their work getting archived and purchased by museums (LACMA, The Getty, USC) and is now available for people to learn from. Because only major institutions can afford to do a great job of creating data archives and storage, it's a huge issue for those who were "forgotten about."

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Pascale Sablan a few years back when she shared her reasoning for developing the "Beyond the Built" exhibitions. She explained that because Black architects and designers living and deceased weren't being written about and shared online it was harder for search results on them to appear.

Yes, exactly. Paul R. Williams is a great example. He was known as a prolific Los Angeles architect, but his work wasn't written about or studied by the next generations as serious Architecture. It was also hard to access the records around his work because they were commonly thought to have been lost in a fire (the office archives were found just two years ago). In 2017, we at the JSI recruited a talented art photographer by the name of Janna Ireland to create a photographic portrait of the Architect through his work. She went on to make her own body of work, and we hosted a show of her photos celebrating Williams, "There is only one Paul R. Williams: A Portrait by Janna Ireland." It's beautiful fine artwork and also foundational documentation of Williams' work and narrative. Janna Ireland's show increased the spotlight on Paul Williams in a big way, and that in turn has led to the telling and seeing of "history" in a new and robust way. As well as bring Ireland's remarkable work and point of view to a larger audience. 

Photography as Art

As our hour was slowly reaching its halfway point, it was easy to get entranced in Bestor's commitment and passion for celebrating architecture photography through the JSI. Her anecdotes on past exhibitions and her thoughts on the importance of creating space and connections through visual narrative were both motivating and informative. During our conversation, it was clear that much of Bestor's work is influenced by improving the narrative of how architectural photography is viewed when exhibited. She expands on how architectural photography is as much of an art form as it is a method of communicating a building and its relationship to its surrounding environment. 

She was like a memory vault, able to recall almost every photographer she's worked with and how their stories were of importance. She mentioned that "architectural photography doesn't always have a home," and through Shulman's legacy, she wanted to provide a space that would house the two.   

The JSI is one of the only institutes led by a school that is explicitly dedicated to architectural photography. So with the nature of photography and digital media right now, why is the work and programming at the JSI still important?   

Showcasing the work of these photographers has been amazing. It has also allowed us to build a small collection of work from our award winners. That itself explicates this discourse around photography of the built environment. Another important outcome is creating more ways to communicate architecture to the target population in Los Angeles by being outward-facing and community-facing. It gives a different perspective and sense of connectivity. Thanks to Woodbury University, until recently, we were able to use its satellite gallery space, WUHO, in Hollywood to showcase this work. We had a modest budget, and it gave us that basic framework to tell the stories museums and private galleries rarely ever do.

I know many people are familiar with Iwan Baan and his work. He was the first recipient of the award. How has his work amplified this perspective of experiencing architecture visually?

He's a great example of a photographer who's carried out Shulman's legacy. He is directly engaged with the discourse of contemporary architecture and has expanded it in ways that have helped our critical and aesthetic understanding. A lot of his work not only regards buildings themselves but also looks at the cities, spaces, and people that make these structures possible. His lens contextualizes the architectural project — showing workers on a job site in Beijing or passersby inhabiting enormous new arts complexes. Baan also is a true adventurer, and I doubt any other photographers lately have been around the globe as much- which means his Instagram and publication output is remarkable.

The different photographers we've exhibited and worked with have been so insightful and unique. It has been nice and very rewarding to have work archived and have other museums take an interest in these shows. Each year we give the Excellence in Photography Award, and I'm always excited to work with the photographers and our team to create an exhibition that engages with Los Angeles. In 2013 we awarded Catherine Opie with the Excellence in Photography Award. Her exhibition, "Catherine Opie: In & Around L.A.," focuses on the people, places, and buildings within walking distance of her house in Los Angeles. In 2016, James Welling was the winner, and his exhibition focused in part on older works he had made in and about Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s — tracing the history of the city a bit through his changing attitudes toward image-making. These were just two of the many examples of ways of presenting art-making and architecture that were fun to work on!

Photography as Influence

My time with Bestor was closing, and our conversation soon developed into an engaging, casual dialogue about photography and how it influenced our perspectives. I was curious to learn if there were photographers that affected how she viewed spaces and places. I shared with Bestor my love for Wayne Thom. We talked about his iconic photograph of the Westin Bonaventure building. I explained to her that Thom's work helped me see a city I grew up in through a different lens, no pun intended. He was a great example of representation in a white-dominated field. He is an Asian architectural photographer who used his experience within the built environment to share how he wanted others to experience architecture. 

Similar to Wayne Thom and other architecture photographers, your work has become synonymous with Los Angeles. Do remember the first architecture photographer who helped you look at the built environment differently? Is there one specific to LA?

Are you familiar with the work of Andreas Gursky and his famous 99 cent store image?

I am, it's a great image! I remember seeing that photograph when I was exploring the work of Candida Höfer and photographs of interiors. That image is a favorite of mine. It always brings me back to when I was a kid and going to the 99 cent store with my grandparents.

Yes! Gursky's image is so fun. It seems like a pop, superficial moment, but then it's also kind of about the 99 cent building itself — its Warholian displays — and also about him taking the picture and critiquing it. His work and that specific image were so much more than a photograph of the interior. For me, it's also about color and pleasure: the playfulness that's vernacular in our city.

Photography as History

Going into this conversation with Bestor, my goal was to learn more about the JSI and its plans. However, what resulted was an afternoon with a woman who enjoyed talking about the history and stories of people passionate about photographing spaces and the stories within them. She expressed that these stories of photographers and underrepresented artists "didn't exist in the canonical history of architecture, especially in California." She added, "as an Institution that can create shows around architecture and photography, this was important for me to see through."

The Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University is one example of an architecture school that builds understanding and awareness through exhibition and community-focused programming. By amplifying the work of design professionals whose stories have yet to be told, Barbara Bestor, curators, and the team at Woodbury University continue to celebrate architecture photography with the influential spirit of Julius Shulman.

In May 2021, the Institute announced Chicago-based photographer, writer, and lecturer Lee Bey as the 2021 Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award. As the JSI's ninth award recipient, he joins the likes of past recipients such as Iwan Baan (2010), Pedro Guerrero (2012), Catherine Opie (2013), Hélène Binet (2015), and Benny Chan (2018) to name a few. Stay tuned to learn more about upcoming plans to celebrate the work of Lee Bey.