kk on a Desert Detour
Photo: Josh Schweitzer
Leaning against the "Monument" in Joshua Tree
Photo: Harry Pallenberg
Visiting the late Albert Frey in Palm Springs
Albert Frey 1903 - 1998
One ot the pioneers of the International Style.
Modernist Albert Frey died at the age of 95 in Palm Springs, California. Frey was born in Zürich and worked briefly under Le Corbusier before coming to America in 1930. Frey saw architecture as a means to social liberation through egalitarian, affordable designs implemented in mass - produced materials. His buildings are constructed primarily of aluminium, glass and cables, and, keeping with the modernist tradition, emphasize their natural surroundings. His numerous constructions in Palm Springs integrate Modernist notions of machine-made future with the natural landscape of the desert.
Earlier photo by Julius Shulman 1965
Photo: kk 1998
Shulman in his studio/house designed for him in 1950 by Raphael Soriano. Behind Shulman on the wall is a photo of the Villa Savoye team with both Le Corbusier and Albert Frey.
Julius Shulman, one of the great masters of modern architectural photography, is the preeminent recorder of early California modernism. By 1927, when he was sixteen, Shulman was already using the family Brownie box camera to document his Southern California surroundings and experiences; in 1936, his professional carreer was launched when he sent Richard Neutra some uncommisioned photographs of the architect's Kun House. Shulman went on to document the famous Case Study Program (architects included Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, and Eero Saarinen) and also the architecture of the 1930s through the 1980s, especially that of Southern California. Through his work, Shulman defined the image of Los Angeles and framed the architecture of the time for a global audience.
More Julius Shulman photos.
