Alexander Liberman photography archive

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) has contributed approximately 1,400 highlights from the Alexander Liberman photography archive to the Artstor Digital Library (Artstor provided the digitization support in this initiative). The collection in Artstor represents Liberman’s portraiture.

The full Liberman Archive comprises more than 148,000 photographic prints and related materials dated from c. 1925-1988. Born in Kiev, Liberman (1912–1999) studied in London and Paris before immigrating to the United States in 1941. He worked in editorial photography at Vogue Magazine and Condé Nast. He also published several books of his photographs, including: The Artist in His Studio (1960, 1988); Greece: Gods and Art (1968); Marlene: An Intimate Photographic Memoir (1992); Campodiglio: Michelangelo’s Roman Capitol (1994); Then: Photographs 1925–1995 (1995); and Prayers in Stone (1998).

An artist in his own right, Liberman is best known for his large-scale metal sculptures. His public sculpture may be seen in cities worldwide and his work is included in major collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Storm King Art Center, the Tate Collection, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Julius Shulman photography archive

The Getty Research Institute (GRI) has contributed approximately 6,150 highlights from the Julius Shulman photography archive to the Artstor Digital Library (Artstor provided the digitization support in this initiative).

The complete Shulman archive comprises more than 260,000 negatives, prints, transparencies, and related material, spanning the career of Julius Shulman (1910–2009) and documenting the development of modern architecture in Southern California. In 1936, Shulman photographed Richard J. Neutra’s Kun House in Los Angeles. Through Neutra, Shulman secured commissions to photograph the work of California-based architects – R. M. Schindler, Raphael Soriano, Gregory Ain, J. R. Davidson, John Lautner, and Pierre Koenig, among others. From 1945 to 1966, Shulman photographed projects from the Case Study House Program, an experimental initiative that commissioned known architects – Neutra, Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Eames, Koenig, and Eero Saarinen – to design inexpensive and innovative homes during the post-World War II housing boom.

Shulman is acclaimed for his iconic images of mid-century modern buildings. He created one of the most comprehensive visual records of the development of modern architecture within Los Angeles and throughout the changing landscape of Southern California.

The Getty Research Institute is dedicated to furthering knowledge and understanding of the visual arts, by providing resources for art historical research. Its extensive library collections include books, periodicals, and auction catalogs. Special collections of unique materials, primarily works on paper — rare books, prints, and photographs, deepen the research resources along with an expansive photo archive.