Pedro E Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life, Los Angeles

Bruce Graham House, Bruce Graham Architect, 1963, Rehobeth Beach.

(Image credit: Pedro E. Guerrero, Edward Cella Art Architecture)

last updated 28 October 2022

Pedro E Guerrero was a close friend of iconic modernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright as well his main photographer for twenty years - making his work something of an architectural treasure. Add to this his extensive career documenting architecture and the fact that the show has been put on by the Julius Shulman Institute and it quickly becomes apparent why this is not to be missed.

Mexican-American Guerrero was born in Arizona in 1917 and studied at the Art Centre School in Los Angeles before becoming Lloyd Wright's photographer at his Arizona home, Taliesin West, in 1939. 'Pedro E Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life' is the photographer's first extensive retrospective and takes the visitor through seven decades of his diverse career and portfolio.

Apart from his work for Lloyd Wright, the 95-year-old Guerrero's photographic subjects have included projects by Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson and Eero Saarinen. His editorial commissions, meanwhile, include publications such as Vogue, the New York Times Magazine and Architectural Record.

Guerrero's work has developed in parallel to that of recognised masters of architectural photography such as Julius Shulman and Ezra Stoller, while his work stands out for its organic approach. The exhibition opens on 5 April at the Julius Shulman Institute's home, the Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery. Look out for unexpected detail shots like the picture of Lloyd Wright's hand demonstrating the difference between organic and conventional architecture.

Photograph of Diamond Gas Station, 1950s — Diamond Gas Station, 1950s, location unknown.

Exterior of Luthold House — Luthold House, Allen Gelbin Architect, 1966, New Canaan.

Photograph of IBM Office Building — IBM Office Building, 1961, New York State.

Day House exterior photograph — Day House, John Black Lee Architect, 1970, New Canaan.

United Church of Rowayton, Joseph Salerno Architect, 1962, Rowayton.

Manhattan studio photograph — Self Portrait, Manhattan studio, 1950.

Teabreak photograph — Teabreak #1 at the Guggenheim Pavilion, 1953, New York.

ADDRESS

Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery (WUHO)
6518 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).