Turning the lens to the architecture of Paul R. Williams
Photographer Janna Ireland is known for portraits of family and friends that explore domesticity and Black life. But she has devoted the last four years to driving the streets of Los Angeles, seeking out some of the more than 3,000 projects designed by barrier-breaking Los Angeles architect Paul Revere Williams.
The result: her critically praised collection of photographs “Regarding Paul R. Williams: A Photographer’s View” (Angel City Press). 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.
“This person, who was absolutely brilliant by the standards of any time, was doing all of this work in the middle of the 20th century. And while he got a great deal of recognition for it during his lifetime, it wasn’t enough, and people don’t know his name,” said Ireland, a UCLA alumna who graduated in 2013.
Ireland’s journey with Williams’ work started in 2016. Barbara Bestor, an architect who runs the Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University, wanted to put together a show of Williams’ work at Woodbury’s gallery. James Welling, a professor of Ireland’s and the former head of the photography area in the UCLA Department of Art, recommended that Bestor offer the project to Ireland.
“I had probably heard his name once or twice,” Ireland said. “So, the project has always been a research project, in addition to the project of actually making the photographs.”
At the time Ireland was working full-time at USC during the day, teaching at Pasadena City College in the evenings, and raising two children. That left the weekends to gather photographs.
