James Schnepf - Palm Springs Modern Living

William Krisel, A.I.A.

The desert environment has a special attraction for photographers and architects because of the weather, the sand, the flora and fauna, and the surrounding mountains. It is a great place to live all year-round. The people, the lifestyle, and the desire to improve the well-being of the masses all combine to encourage those in the creative arts to explore, expand, and experiment with their creative juices. James Schnepfs photography and my architecture are proof of this desert magic.

I am in my ninetieth year and my design philosophy has always been that Midcentury Modern (MCM) architecture is not a style but a language. With its legacy of now more than eighty years, MCM is still spoken and enjoyed by a new generation of architects and landscape architects. The MCM language is never out of date. It always unfolds and adapts to new technologies and challenges, but the language stays the same. Architecture does not stop with the building...architecture and landscape should meld into one design process. That was my design philosophy when I became a licensed architect in California in 1950 and a licensed landscape architect in 1954. I still speak MCM and firmly believe that both design areas are interconnected and inseparable.

Thanks to the people and city of Palm Springs, California, the expression of love and interest in MCM has spread to the whole Coachella Valley. As a wider appreciation for MCM moves forward and the wrecking ball slows, a new discourse provides for a continued wave of advocates who truly care about MCM architecture. The number of restoration projects of my 1950s houses increases every year. International interest in the movement has produced an annual event in Palm Springs known as Modernism Week; the 2014 event attracted 50,000 people who came from all over the world to see and experience MCM. Palm Springs is now, without question, the capital of the world for the expression of MCM language.

The people of Palm Springs live the MCM experience devoid of historic stylea change in the way one lives. They have embraced the innovative integration of progressive designa new dialog. I am permanently indebted to Palm Springs and my builder/developer clients who were able to do more with less and allowed me to fully express my language. It was a distinctly modern era for the desert.

James Schnepf has a unique relationship with the desert. His photographic abilities capture the architecture, the people, and the landscape, along with the everyday rituals and rhythms of this special place. His remarkable talent is most inspiring for all to enjoy. James Schnepf is a fluent speaker of MCM.

My Palm Springs Project, as I called it, initially took root as my wife and I began a new relationship with the desert in 2010 with the purchase of a 1959 William Kriseldesigned home in this California desert community. Curiosity got the best of me as I began exploring the architecture, landscape, and people of Palm Springs while on visits from my Midwest base. As primarily a people photographer, I naturally began to question, Who lives in that house? Who is the person that designed that house? I wanted to meet the Modernists that live behind the decorative screen block faades. In all my travels throughout the world, my camera has always acted as a passport into other cultures and a perfect learning tool. This project has been a perfect union of photography and discovery, and this book that has resulted is a celebration of not only the architecture of Palm Springs, but more importantly the people behind it.

During the four years working on this project I have had the privilege of making portraits of the handful of Midcentury architects that are still with us, masters who used the empty California desert as a canvas to make dreams concrete and to expand the horizons of what the language of architecture could be. My camera has also captured a few of todays contemporary desert architects who stand on the shoulders of these pioneers, as well as the communitys blend of artists, preservationists, revivalists, members of the old guard, and other assorted characters who have been a part of the Palm Springs renaissance.

I need to thank so many people who have supported my ongoing photographic documentation. New friends who have made my potential subject list grow as time went on with not only suggestions but entres to more people of passion. Our dear friends at the Sandpiper, Jim West and Karen Prinzmetal, were instrumental in getting this project off the ground and have offered support and advice from the very beginning right through to my very last shoot. (Coincidentally, my very last book subject was the man who most people agree almost single-handedly reignited the Palm Springs Midcentury renaissance back in 1993Modern pioneer Jim Moore.)

Thanks to William Krisel, who designed so many incredible projects in and around Palm Springs, including the Sandpiper in Palm Desert. The setting of the Sandpiper community struck a visual chord within mehis architecture there was instant inspiration for me to want to seek out and learn more. A big thanks to writer Matthew Link, who extracted from my subjects their feelings about their city and their love of all things Palm Springs. To designer Gary Wexler, who offered his keen sense of design to create the books look. And to my book editor, Bob Cooper, whose initial driving desire to create a structure for all of the materialsand trust me, there were a lot of images to considersignaled to me I was in good hands. Last, to my wife, Christiane, for her constant underlying support towards my time away shooting for this project...and all of my work.

I guess you could say that I began this project for selfish reasons: to satisfy my own curiosity to find out what this fascinating new world around me was all about. At its beginnings, I could never have dreamed that over the course of the next four years I would be meeting a community of people whose level of passion could be so big. I can only hope that this collection of photographs authentically captures an honest portrait of this unique community at this wonderful moment in time.

My biggest thanks of all go out to all of my Palm Springs Project subjects for being so very generous with their time and support.