Visual Acoustics

Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics explores the monumental career of 98-year-old architectural photographer, Julius Shulman.

Populating his photos with human models and striking landscapes, Shulman combined the organic with the synthetic, melding nature with revolutionary urban design. The resulting images helped to shape the careers of some of the greatest architects of the 20th Century, with Shulman documenting the work of Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Pierre Koenig, John Lautner and many others.

“Visual Acoustics is nominally about the life and career of landmark Southern California architectural photographer Julius Shulman, but it's more about the buildings he photographed than it is about him. Which is probably the way he'd like it.”

Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch and writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award -- nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti and a host of others.

In addition, by offering unprecedented and exclusive access to his amazing photographic archive and his day-to-day life, Shulman's dedicated involvement in the process afforded an incalculable benefit to the film. Through the exploration of both Shulman’s art and uniquely individualistic life, Visual Acoustics offers an unforgettable portrait of Modernism’s most eloquent ambassador.

Shulman’s career began in 1936 when he began photographing homes designed by architect Richard Neutra.

Shulman was subsequently flooded with commissions from other well-known architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies Van der Rohe and countless others. Over the coming years, Shulman would become one of the artists responsible for establishing the cohesive “look” of 20th-century modernist design.

Remarkably, Shulman’s photography remains as powerful today as it was in those heady days of the 1950s and 60s, when Modern design seemed to hold the promise of an ordered and aesthetically sensuous future. Nearly 70 years after his first commission, his work continues to move a new generation, his photographs inspiring the artists currently defining 21st Century design. The enthusiastic resurgence of Shulman’s fans have resulted in a renewed celebration of his work -- including featured articles in recent pages of Wallpaper, Dwell and Vanity Fair and countless design and architecture books released by high profile publishers such as Taschen and Rizzoli.

Still highly active, Shulman, at 98 (!), continues to take photography assignments and lecture invitations from around the world. While at home, holding court in his 1949 Raphael Soriano-designed studio in Hollywood’s Laurel Canyon, Shulman and his incomparable archive continue to bring to life a Los Angeles style that he helped to create; a style that has influenced the designers of today’s sleek global aesthetic.

In addition to remaining a respected and insightful voice within the architecture community, Shulman continues as an outspoken and extremely vocal advocate of imbuing the urban 21st century with a sense of humanity and a balance with the natural world.

An uncompromising critic of coldness and abstraction in modern design, Shulman not only has a historic role in the creation of the Southern California architectural landscape, but he has also fought for green spaces and against overdevelopment. Shulman’s insistence on design in harmony with nature is formed by his own life experience -- his passion for the solace of his own home garden and a deeply personal commitment to ecological causes.

In essence, Julius Shulman is a humanist.

His genuine love for people, culture, and the arts has granted him eternal youth of both spirit and heart. Whether it is a student or neophyte architect embarking upon a new career, prestigious heads of state or Frank Gehry, Julius has a genuine and equal interest in all.

Shulman- the photographer, the intuitive artist and the outspoken critic is the living embodiment of the great social vision of modernism: by mobilizing volumes of industrial materials such as glass and steel, we will free the soul and spirit from enclosure and open our lives to the harmony of the natural world.

“Visual Acoustics is nominally about the life and career of landmark Southern California architectural photographer Julius Shulman, but it's more about the buildings he photographed than it is about him. Which is probably the way he'd like it.” (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)