In 1947, Julius Shulman asked architect Raphael Soriano to build a mid-century steel home and studio in the Hollywood Hills.

[2] Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright's or Pierre Koenig's remarkable structures, have been published countless times.

The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friends, Richard Neutra and Raphael Soriano, was first brought to wider attention by Shulman's photography.

The clarity of his work added to the idea that architectural photography be considered as an independent art form in which perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape informs the photograph.

Julius Shulman was born in Brooklyn to Ukrainian-Jewish parents[3] on October 10, 1910, and grew up on a small farm in Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles while still a boy.

[1] In 1936 he returned to Los Angeles, where he was enlisted by a friend, working as a draftsman for Neutra, to take photographs of a new, Neutra-designed Kun Residence in Hollywood with his amateur Vest Pocket Kodak camera.

When Neutra saw the pictures, he asked to meet the photographer and proceeded to give him his first assignments which assisted Shulman in launching his career in architectural photography.

[4] The exhibition included sections entitled "Framing the California Lifestyle," "Promoting the Power of Modern Architecture," "The Tools of an Innovator" and "The Development of a Metropolis".

[7] Organized by the Getty Research Institute, the exhibit included 150 photographs documenting architectural changes in Los Angeles over the past 80 years.

It discusses how Shulman's images helped to shape the careers of influential 20th-century architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and John Lautner.