Visual Acoustics from wes on Vimeo.

All photographers fashion their own reality, creating images that are closer to perfection than what they’re ostensibly capturing.

After making the the screening rounds and picking up a handful of awards, Eric Bricker's film, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, narrated by Dustin Hoffman is finally scheduled for its theatrical release next week in New York. (October 9th at Cinema Village)

Julius Shulman, who died in earlier his year, is perhaps the premier architectural photographer of the 20th century. He is one of those artists whose work is so strong that it has supplanted our collective memory and defined the history of its subject—in this case almost the entire field of modernist architecture. It is difficult to imagine 1960s L.A. without calling to mind Shulman's image of two women, behind plate glass, cantilevered over L.A. on a clear evening. Although photographs are often intended to serve their subjects, Shulman's work has become iconic and the buildings seem to exist simply to serve his photographs. In her 2009 L.A. Magazine Article Mary Melton quotes Pierre Koenig, who designed the Case Study House No. 22 and was apparently a little put out by this, reminding us that “architects have to build the buildings before he can photograph them." In a field where artists frequently protect their techniques like trade secrets, Shulman was known for never turning down speaking engagements, answering his own phones, and being very generous with his knowledge. With a little effort you can still find used copies of his book: The Photography of Architecture and Design: Photographing Buildings, Interiors, and the Visual Arts.

A few more links:
The film's Facebook page
Dwell: True Hollywood Story
NY Times Obituary