Julius Shulman: Modern San Diego - Curator Talk

Join Keith York, curator of Julius Sulman: Modern San Diego exhibition at the Central Library Art gallery and take a deep dive into the images by world-renowned architectural photographer Julius Shulman. His work has come to define post-war modernism in Southern California and although widely known for iconic images of Los Angeles and Palm Springs during the 1940s-1970s, Keith York will share with attendees an overview of Shulman’s 200+ projects in San Diego between 1934-2007, capturing the City’s developing residential suburbs, retail corridors, and downtown high-rise buildings following World War II.

Shulman’s first photograph was taken in Balboa Park in 1934 of the Ford Building by architect Walter Dorwin Teague and his last, in 2007, was of Jonathan Segal’s Lemperle Residence in La Jolla. In the decades in between Shulman photographed the work of local architects Henry Hester, Sim Bruce Richards, Frederick Liebhardt, as well as firms Deems/Lewis & Partners, Mosher & Drew, Tucker, Sadler & Bennett and Frank L. Hope & Associates among many others.

Many of Shulman’s photographs, including a portion of his San Diego projects were published locally, nationally and internationally. In newspapers, industry publications, ‘shelter magazines’ and coffee table books, the photographer was able to capture decades of trends in contemporary architecture, landscape architecture, and furniture design.