FOTO

The legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman (1910-2009) once said, “Whether we recognize it or not, we all live in a world of architecture.” Shulman would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Oct. 10, and to mark the occasion, the Julius Shulman Institute — which was founded in 2005 at Woodbury University in Burbank, Calif. — will present “Image.Architecture.Now,” an exhibition and symposium that explore the intersections between architecture and photography.

Just as Shulman’s own distinctive vision defined his remarkable body of work, the exhibition’s curator, Audrey Landreth, believes that a photograph is defined by its photographer’s eye rather than by the building it depicts. The work of the 10 photographers that she selected for the show reveals just how many ways there are to capture architecture through the lens. Featuring both well-known names (James Welling, Catherine Opie) and emerging artists (Chris Mottalini, Victoria Sambunaris), “Image.Architecture.Now” showcases each photographer’s personal exploration of space and human experience, from the grand and glorious to the poignant and devastating.

“375 Lexington” by Jason Schmidt, a frequent contributor to T, frames a diminutive human figure against the monumental scale of Midtown Manhattan, while Sze Tsung Leong shows how history and progress coexist, often uncomfortably, in contemporary Chinese cities. Iwan Baan, who almost always includes people in his work and is best known for his lively images of Herzog and de Meuron’s National Stadium in Beijing, will receive the institute’s first annual Julius Shulman Photography Award. At an Oct. 9 symposium, several of the photographers will discuss their approaches with the architects whose work is their subject matter.

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