daily life/morning walk at ocean beach

Some days I just need to be by water. Actually most days this is what I need, but yesterday it was doubly true. Water is grounding for me and with so many different things pulling at my time and attention, just hearing the ocean's constant, low roar anchors me and slows everything down. The birds were having a pretty good time yesterday as well...

irving harper/finally a book!

I got a really lovely surprise in the mail before Christmas. A few of the new Irving Harper/Works in Paper book that is coming out soon. you can pre-order it here. I am so proud to have some my images from my shoots at Irving's included in the book. It is exciting that more people will get a chance to see Irving's amazing paper sculptures in more detail. So inspiring!! Michael Maharam and his crew have done such a wonderful job.
Looking at the new book today got me to thinking about all the images I have never shared and for some reason this one jumped out at me. Just a storage room in Irvings attic/studio, but man were there some gems in there! Lots of files of his furniture designs, and of course, a few paper sculptures/pieces, as you can see. I really love the wall with the crack marks. They reminded me of snail trails.

carina seth andersson/ nyt.people watching outtakes

A few more outtakes from Carina Seth Andersson's studio in Sweden. I really love the pared back aesthetic. Black, white and a couple shots of bright yellow. In the last shot are her glass baby rattles. Apparently she has a bit if a sense of humour as well.
Happy Christmas.

the last NYT People Watching/Carina Seth Andersson outtakes

I've been meaning to post some outtakes of Carina Seth Andersson from my People Watching post for the NYTimes so finally today here are a few. This will be my last People Watching post I am sad to say. There are big changes afoot at T Style online and that includes moving away from columns. So I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to my editors, Julia Felsenthal and Jane Herman Bishop who helped to make the column into something I will always be proud of. And of course a special thanks to all of you for following and sending kind and encouraging emails, comments, etc. People Watching sprang out of what I was doing already - namely finding people whose work I admire and basically inviting myself over to meet them - and I will continue to do just that. I find so much joy in it and even more in sharing these people with all of you. So maybe they will be posted here on my blog, or maybe they will be elsewhere. I have toyed with the idea of doing a one off magazine of all the wonderful people I have shot that have never been seen...there are so many possibilities! So we'll see...

For now, I am happily writing my new book and prepping a Kickstarter campaign that will post in the first weeks of 2013 to help me to finish that book. Lots of amazing things are on the horizon. So a deep and grateful thank you. I hope your holidays are filled with love, beauty and time with those that are dearest to you. 

Kisses from California! 

L-

shopping at castiglione/

It is hard to avoid. When I am shooting all these wonderful houses, in my mind I am kind of shopping. That lamp would be really nice in my living room, I will think. Or a sofa, painting, wall covering - you name it. I have a little (ok, it is big) laundry list of desired objects. Sometimes I even play the "If I could have one thing in this house what would it be?" At Achille Castiglione's studio, I would probably choose these packing crates. I know, this sounds crazy, but I just freaking love them! They are so sturdy and who knows what is in them! I would use them as a headboard for my bed - yes, they are that big. To be honest there are quite a few more things at Castiglione I would love to have, but my love for these crates knows no bounds...

I see love/

Photography is so much of the time merely a projection. Does that make sense? What I mean is that when I take pictures of things in houses, I tend to see something more in them. On a psychological level, it could be more about me than it is about the person whose home it is. Hopefully it's about both of us. I have been thinking about this a lot with all the editing I have been doing for the European book (really need to figure out a title!). This image is the perfect example, although not from the book. It is from Věra Janoušková's atelier in Prague. It seems innocuous - a bookshelf with some pipes. But I saw this and I saw love. I had seen a couple of photographs of Vera's husband sitting around smoking pipes. It is clear that these were his, but he passed away years ago, so clearly she kept them beyond their "use". So to me they were a symbol of her love for her husband. How much of this is about me and how much is about Vera? I honestly have no idea...

color and patina/

I took a little detour this morning into some images I shot for the book, but ended up not meeting the criteria. I probably shouldn't do that because it always breaks my heart a little. But isn't the color of this door and the patina/crackling just sublime?

just pretty/

Happy Sunday.

finn juhl/

Just a quiet image for this Friday. Shot in Finn Juhl's home office. Have a lovely weekend friends.

sunrise, cap martin

I am editing through all the images of Le Corbusier's Cabanon in Roquebrune sur Mer, France today. When I shot the cabin, it was the height of the August holiday in France. I will admit I was a bit frustrated at the time because everyone was in vacation mode and I was just gearing up to get into full on work mode (this was my first shoot of the trip). The best light at the cabin was in the morning so I woke before sunrise. I am not a super early bird, but sunrise shoots always bestow the gift of seeing the sunrise - a fact I find easy to forget when I am trying to rouse myself out of bed. But that day, I walked to my balcony (I was staying in Cap Martin) and this is what I saw. It was so quiet I could hear the water lapping on the shore. It was the start to one of the most important shoots that I did on my trip. Heavenly...

carina seth andersson/nyt.people watching

I'm so happy my new NYT People Watching has finally posted! There was a bit of a delay with all the holiday and Design Miami coverage. But I think it is completely worth it because it is posting on 12.12.12!
: D
Without further ado, meet Carina Seth Andersson!

my converse/

Just a quickie post today. I am sequencing the Bruno Mathsson chapter so I don't want to break away from that for too long. But I ran across this image and it makes me laugh. If you guys only knew how many pictures I have of my Converse. I lie on a lot of floors. Ha!

J'adore Antwerp/Tobias van Hattem

One day while I was in Antwerp, I was feeling a bit unsettled. I am sure it was from all the travel and the fact that I was in the middle of writing a NYT post, but hey...what's a girl to do. This girl goes for a walk! And that day in Antwerp, my walk led me to Tobias van Hattem. I could hear him playing his piano for a few blocks away and just unconsciously walked towards it. And then I just sat for about  a 1/2 hour and listened. I was not alone, in fact he had quite a crowd. It was wonderful just communing with my fellow man in the city streets through music. A rare experience.
Click here for a clip I found on youtube. this clip actually doesn't do his playing justice...
He told me he plays all the time and has a place nearby where he "parks" his piano. For some reason I love the idea of seeing where he parks the piano. I wonder how far he pushes it. He mentioned it is quite close, but before he said he was pushing it from home and that was really far...

just pretty/

From a visit to Green Gulch Zen Center yesterday.
Have a good weekend friends.

J'adore Antwerp/ le zoo

Did I mention that I fell in love with the city of Antwerp during my trip? Well, I did...for so many reasons. So for the next few days I am going to share just a few of them.
I happened upon the entrance to the zoo completely by accident. It is right next to the Centraal Station. I cannot remember why I was over there but I went for a lot of walks so that is the most likely reason. The lion just captivated me. How incredibly beautiful is he?! I didn't go in. I just admired the entry...and then that class of school children walked out in pairs and all I could think was "how lucky to be able to come to this zoo as a child."

editing/

I am in the middle of sequencing all the images into chapters for my new book and it is always so interesting the images that just kind of stick with me. This one keeps pulling me and there is a snowball's chance in hell it will make it in the book. It is from a storage room at Carl Aubock Werkstatte. But goodness it is pretty...

old operating theatre/london

On my visit to London in September, I visited the Old Operating Theatre Museum. Truth be told, this was one of my "I am not leaving without visiting" destinations. I love things like this! Maybe it is because I was weaned on Masterpiece Theatre, or that I have a fascination with surgery (I have photographed a few...) - I don't really know, but the room itself did not disappoint. It is surprisingly small and the details (like the little box of sawdust under the table to soak up the blood) added so much to my imagining this room in use. It is rather horrific to think what it would have been like to have had surgery without all the modern advances like anesthetic, X-rays, etc. - you know little things like that. There was a display of old surgical instruments that was rather harrowing/fascinating as well.
The theatre is located in the attic of an old church which added a layer of intrigue to the visit. We had to climb up a spiral staircase into the attic and then go through another part of the "museum" that was filled with old apothecary artifacts called the "Herb Garret". That part of the museum was a little hokey in my estimation, but hey...what ever floats your boat. I added a couple images of the Herb Garret at the end there. Funky, right? Wonder what the alligators were used for...

braun/old school

Old school Braun stereo from one of the houses for my new book. It still has the old microphone and recorder! Damn, I wish I could have recorded my voice on this thing...