Regarding Paul R. Williams bookcover

Regarding Paul R. Williams

A Photographer's View
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Description

Janna Ireland, an award-winning photographer, presents a collection of stunning, intimate black-and-white photographs of the work of Paul Revere Williams, who was known as "Hollywood's Architect" and was the first black architect admitted to the American Institute of Architecture.

Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer's View is a photographic exploration of the work of the first AIA-certified African American architect west of the Mississippi River. Known as "Hollywood's Architect", Paul Revere Williams was a Los Angeles native who built a wildly successful and as an architect decades before the Civil Rights Movement. He designed municipal buildings and private homes as well as banks, churches, hospitals, and university halls. He designed public housing projects and mansions for celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. In 1923, Williams became the first black member of the American Institute of Architects. In 2017, nearly forty years after his death, he became the first black recipient of the AIA Gold Medal.

In her book Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer's View, artist Janna Ireland explores the work and legacy of Williams through a series of intimate black-and-white photographs. Ireland gives the reader a vision of Williams that is both universal and highly personal. More than a book of architectural photographs, Regarding Paul R. Williams is the result of one artist's encounter with another, connecting across different generations within the same city.

Janna Ireland was born in Philadelphia, but has chosen Los Angeles as her home. She holds an MFA the from UCLA Department of Art and a BFA from the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU. Ireland is the 2013 recipient of the Snider Prize, presented by the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Chicago, and in group exhibitions across the United States and internationally. She has been published in Aperture, Harper's, Art Papers, Vice, and The Los Angeles Times.

Product Details

PublisherAngel City Press
Publish DateSeptember 15, 2020
Pages224
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9781626400818
Dimensions12.3 X 9.3 X 0.9 inches | 3.4 pounds

Reviews

"... a monograph that captures the essence of his impressive architecture."--David A. Keeps "Introspective Magazine" (2/14/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"'Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer's View, ' published by Angel City Press, isn't a typical review of an architect's work. Instead, it's Ireland's impression of the structures designed by the trailblazing L.A. architect.

In it, she captures the curve of staircases and the corners of interiors and exteriors that might otherwise go unnoticed. It's a book about the details, not a career overview. That, she says, is something that will take much more time as scholars continue to dig deeper into his career."--Liz Ohanesian "Los Angeles Daily News" (10/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Enriched by Ireland's own reflections, along with those of the L.A.-based Bestor and architect and educator Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, the volume's collection of more than 200 black-and-white photographs goes beyond an academic documentation of Williams's architecture--it evokes the aura of his city and celebrates a body of work that helped to define it."-- "Architectural Record" (12/4/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Ireland crisscrossed Southern California and Southern Nevada, shooting the houses, churches, staircases, and mausoleums featured here. Essays by architect Barbara Bestor and Professor Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter add further context to Williams' work. The photography is as elegant as his design, and the book is a fitting tribute to a man who transformed the landscape of Los Angeles more than almost anyone."--Mike Sonksen "L.A. Taco" (12/9/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"Ireland's new book, Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer's View, captures that scope not by cataloging the physical buildings ... but by capturing the emotional sweep and dogged ambition that connects all of Williams's work and creates a narrative about Los Angeles itself. Ireland's black-and-white images are sometimes intimate, glimpses of voluptuous staircases and immaculate interior walls in half shadow; sometimes they observe, unsentimentally but meditatively, dirt and concrete lots where Williams's work used to be. There is a poignancy to all of this that make each image a compelling piece of a larger search for the essential meaning of Paul R. Williams, and of the city that gave him his chance. It's a search that, for Ireland, is far from over."--Erin Kaplan "LA Review of Books" (12/22/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"The book features 280 of Ireland's black-and-white images that evoke moody interiors and exterior landscapes, with long shadows stretching over curving staircases and archways, showing the architect's mastery of proportion and composition and his lasting impact on Los Angeles."--Avishay Artsy "UCLA Newsroom" (2/10/2021 12:00:00 AM)
"This book features striking black and white imagery. It offers a window into the lives lived in Williams' homes, as well as the sheer volume and diversity of his architectural work."--Frances Anderton "KCRW Design & Architecture" (11/6/2020 12:00:00 AM)
"When thinking about what to gift an architect, a book on the subject might be the first thing that comes to mind. But which to get? Take it from architect Barbara Bestor of Bestor Architecture, who recommends Regarding Paul R. Williams, a book that collects photographs by artist Janna Ireland of architect Paul Williams's buildings across Southern California. "Williams, who was the first licensed Black architect west of the Mississippi River and who was known as 'Hollywood's Architect', designed houses for Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, portions of the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the Pearl Harbor memorial," says Bestor. "I adore Ireland's intimate photographs, and now they are available in this book."--Hilary Reid "New York Magazine / The Strategist" (10/28/2020 12:00:00 AM)

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