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!