Is the Photographer the Real Architect?

Check out the review & trailer of a new documentary of Julius Shulman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS. It raises some interesting points, as noted in an article in Another Magazine/

It proposes, Julius Shulman, who died last year at 98, may have been the most influential figure in modern architecture - yes, not an architect, but a photographer! Although he never designed a building, he "created" thousands of them - the way the great Hollywood directors used to create stars - by immortalising them on film/

Architectural photography implies a certain fidelity to reality. While Shulman's images are faithful, ultimately they are to an ideal - it is an ideal of living; modern yet natural, relaxed yet composed, facilitated by architecture/

Designer Tom Ford remarks: "often, the houses in real life are not nearly as beautiful as Julius' pictures."/

Shulman, it seems, was in the business of creating dreams - a theme reinforced by Visual Acoustics. It was Shulman, more than any architect, who sold the dream to mainstream America

When we walk in a house or building, we experience the volumes, the textures, the light; the whole package. Photographs capture moments, specific compositions & overlay the emotive; the dream.

Is photography the 4th experience for architecture? No longer a means of record, great photography is a key to experiencing architecture