The photographs look so damn fabulous, but I’m telling you, you look at many of these mid-century modern dwellings out in the harsh light of desert locales, and they can look downright ticky-tacky.

And that wall-to-wall glass! It doesn’t bother me so much in terms of energy efficiency or purported lack thereof; it’s the aesthetic that feels wrong. I can still remember a panicky weeping fit that seized me during a stay in a desert hotel in the ‘California Modern’ vein constructed circa 1957. Though I love the low desert country of southern California, the light and the view in that hotel room disturbed me profoundly.

I’ve no idea what the point of these ramblings might be. Perhaps I’m just thinking that Shulman was a superb photographer of and propagandist for an aesthetic that to my mind has never worked well in the desert.