Julius Shulman--a great Angeleno

I adjourned City Council today in honor of the great Julius Shulman, perhaps the greatest photographer of our time. His images of L.A. are icons of our city--its creativity, its geography, its mystery. He was an amazing advocate for our city, especially for the role of art, history and green space.

I remember fondly visiting him at his house where he showed me a plan that Sunset Magazine had many years ago to create a giant Central Park in the San Fernando Valley that would have stretched from east to west as a riparian corridor. He said that Los Angeles was the best city in the world, but we had to do much more to ensure plans like this actually came to fruition and he praised the recent resurgence of activity to revitalize the Los Angeles River. Julius was a close friend of and the main mentor of my father and his photography.

My dad visited Julius a couple of weeks ago and took this shot of Julius, one of the last pictures ever taken of him.

Here's to 98 years of Julius' incredible history-making art and to his enduring love of Los Angeles! Rest in peace, Julius Shulman.