70 years of Shulman

With his 97th birthday arriving Wednesday, Julius Shulman remains the quintessential L.A. photographer. His pictures of residences by visionaries such as Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig have become iconic images of California modernism. Now an exhibition organized by the Getty Research Institute is opening Saturday at the Central Library, featuring 150 images spanning 70 years in the photographer’s career. “Shulman’s Los Angeles,” running through Jan. 20, includes unexpected moments such as this 1954 photograph of Shulman taken by an assistant outside a Cliff May house, above. Shulman said in a 1990 interview for the Smithsonian that he had to stage the landscaping for the finished composition, left, much to the consternation of his editor at Good Housekeeping. 630 W. 5th St., www.lapl.org/central/.

-- Lisa Boone