evelyn ackerman/RIP

I got the sad news Wednesday evening that designer, Evelyn Ackerman had passed away. I had the pleasure of photographing Evelyn and Jerry Ackerman's home for my book Handcrafted Modern. To say it was a wonderful two day shoot is a bit of an understatement. At one point I was shooting in their hallway and peeked in their living room to see them sitting on the couch looking at the new Ikea catalog that had just arrived. They weren't shopping though, they were observing where design was going and discussing the products from a design standpoint. The looked at it for at least a 1/2 hour. It was great.
At the end of my two days, Evelyn and Jerry took me to their favorite noodle house on Sawtelle in LA. It was the perfect way to end the shoot.
Evelyn's tapestry designs are among my favorite from her catalog of work and probably what she is best known for. There is an optimism and lightheartedness to them that always makes me smile. I also love the wood "tiles" in these pics (a couple outtakes from my shoot at their home). The ones in their kitchen are signs of the zodiac. Wish I owned one for my sign (I'm a cancer).
Evelyn, you will be missed and lovingly remembered.

gae aulenti/milan

I edited all the images from Gae Aulenti's home and I am bit in love with this one. It isn't from her home, though. I shot this in her architecture office which is attached to her apartment. There is something gorgeous with that reflection...so pretty!

doors/torino

I've been editing from my trip in April and May in Italy. While I was shooting Casa Mollino in Torino, I took so many images of the beautiful doors there. so a few of those today...

aalto/euro book preview

Hello friends! Hope you had a lovely day with friends and family yesterday. Today, as promised, I am sharing a couple of images from my new book that I have been working on - both from Alvar Aalto's home in Helsinki, Finland. I am going to keep my comments to a minimum (I have to save some things for the book!). What I will say is that this house was one of the most surprising for me for so many reasons. Two of my favorite days out of the whole entire magical trip!

bruno mathsson, sweden

A bit more from Bruno Mathsson HQ in Varmano, Sweden today.
The thing that I found the most fascinating during my visit were these two chairs. The first is what we know Mathsson for. The second is the first chair Mathsson ever made. But here is the thing I STILL marvel over. He made these two chairs only one year apart. Talk about a stylistic leap...
On another note, I have decided in honor of Thanksgiving I am going to give you all a little sneak preview from my new book. Not from my phone...the real deal. So tomorrow or Friday...
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! xx

bruno mathsson/sweden

My trip to Sweden a couple months ago was a very fruitful one, but my main reason for being there was to photograph Bruno Mathsson's home for my new book. During my lunch break I made a visit to the Bruno Mathsson International, where his offices were and where the company is still run from. There is a nice little archive...

alvar aalto studio/helsinki

I spent all day Sunday editing the images from Alvar Aalto's home in Helsinki and I ran across a few more from his studio that I had not shared yet. So here they are today! I don't have a lot of info on what you are looking at though. Sorry about that. Hopefully some of you will fill in the info? Thx!

editing/bruno mathsson

I am in the thick of editing the new book now. This apparently means that my blog posts will be more sporadic than daily. There is just no way to do it all! At this second, I am editing Bruno Mathsson and I can hear myself cursing under my breath. His house is so damn amazing that I am barely editing anything out!  At this rate there will be a year of Bruno Mathsson outtakes. haha!
Here is a teaser. I'll do a couple of juicy posts next week.
Have a great weekend friends!

prague/randoms

Just some random favorites off my phone from my time in Prague today.

freud's couch/london

Sigmund Freud's couch. It is so crazy to look at this and think how the things said on this couch have affected our understanding of human psychology. If you believe in Freud's theories or not, you cannot dispute his influence.
Just to paint the picture for you, Freud sat in that green velvet chair, just out of the sightline of his patients. Fascinating, right?

carl aubock/chair

Lots of editing going on over here for the new book. It is kind of magical going through everything I have shot over the past 6 months. It is only in hindsight that I can see how much I have done/shot/experienced...you name it. I came across this image yesterday of a chair by Carl Aubock that I shot at the Werkstatte in Vienna. Actually it was in a storage room, but Carl Aubock (IV) knew I would love to see all the treasures in there (like the furniture that Carl II designed for himself and lived with in his home). I especially loved this chair, not only because it is fantastic to look at and comfy, but also because of that plaid! Carl's wife designed textiles so this was a husband/wife collaboration. The shape of this chair is great, but for me, the plaid puts it over the top. Just super good.
There is a new book on Werkstatte Carl Aubock that just came out. Looking forward to taking a look.

quilt/

Isn't this quilt amazing? Just ran across this image and it has rekindled my interest in finding an inventive quilter. I shot this in Brno at Věra Janoušková's Atelier but have no idea who the artist is.
If you know of an inventive, original quilter, let me know.

villa necchi/milan

Starting to go through all the random images from my trips and this one I know I didn't share yet. One of the bathrooms at Villa Necchi. I love those round windows!

obama/oh, yes we did...again...

All I can say is PHEW!!!!

daily life/inheritance

Last night I slept in this bed. It was my Grandmothers and before that my Grandfathers. I found my eyes opening this morning and not knowing where I was, but when my hand brushed against the headboard, all these thoughts flooded into my head and I thought I was in my Grandmother's old bedroom. It was comforting and disconcerting all at once. I really wish it was possible to be in that room one more time. But alas, the house was demolished long ago. Interesting way to start the day...

rewind/dr. freud/london

Well today it starts my friends. I am going back to the beginning of all this travel I have been doing and filling in what I have glossed over. There is so much I have not yet shared. Like this image of Sigmund Freud's office. Some of you may know I am a bit obsessed with Dr. Sigmund Freud and this office. He actually didn't really see a lot of patients here because he was rather ill by the time he was in London. But when he fled Vienna, his office was meticulously packed up and shipped over to London and reconstructed in his home in Hampstead. Can you imagine the thoughts he had sitting in that chair?

Gae Aulenti/RIP

Yesterday I received that sad news that Gae Aulenti had passed away. I photographed her amazing apartment in Milan for my upcoming book this past September. I thought I would share one more shot for today in remembrance. One of the heartbreaking aspects of my work photographing these spaces is the knowledge that some will soon be gone. Houses invariably change after someone leaves this earth. Favorite momentos go to new homes and things are slowly gotten rid of because there is no longer any need for them. It is a natural, yet melancholy process.
Have a beautiful weekend friends.

decaying greenhouse/denmark

There is something about a building that is being allowed to break down that I am consistently drawn to. This greenhouse was on the grounds of the Odrupgaard Museum in Denmark, a stonesthrow from Finn Juhl's House and a Zaha Hadid structure. And here it sits, with memories of it's former glory still evident, at least to me. It makes me wistful. Goodness, I hope they restore it.