The Lens of Race: Whiteness and Architectural Photography at Case Study House #22

Julius Shulman’s 1960 photograph of Case Study House #22 is one of the most famous architectural images of the twentieth century, yet it has received little critical scrutiny. This article examines Shulman’s photograph to demonstrate the ways this iconic image of residential architecture is deeply intertwined in the production and reproduction of ideas about race in the United States. It scrutinizes how such an image may be complicit in the formation of white supremacy and urges architectural historians to recognize that structures that have permitted the harms and violence of racism are everywhere. Moreover, such structures are so deeply embedded, they are frequently unseen by those who use them.