Sunday, April 3, 2011

I'm friends with my apartment again

Spent a good part of the weekend just organizing and cleaning. When I do this I feel like I am back again at the "dating" stage with my apartment where all seems new and fresh and exciting. Well I guess not so hard to clean since I don't really have too much. I like my apartment simple and uncluttered. I took a few pics. I did not have a tripod at my apartment---well I had a tripod but not a tripod head---so I shot these handheld. Usually I am all about the tripod.






One of the best parts of cleaning is that I can then relax a little bit later on and look thru
some of my books for inspiration. Here is what I looked thru today.


This is from the book about Herb Ritts titled "Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour".
Herb was a major
force in photography from the 80s and 90s. I remember
thinking, before I was a photographer but still a photo editor, "I wish I could
someday take pics like that..." His work was so stylised
and sexy and
beautifully printed.



In that same "Let's take gorgeous pics of semi-clad beautiful men" vein, here are some spreads
from an epically photographed and printed and designed book by the photographer
Ruven Afanador. This book, Torreo, is on matadors. Ruven is from colombia and I am guessing
the bull ring and bull fight are part of his mythos. This book seems to me testimony to the idea
that what you know well and are passionate about will show in the final result.

NOMA (titled after the restaurant of the same name) is an outstanding book of recipes and photographs. The recipes are by
Rene Redzepl and the photography by Ditte Isager. The pics weirdly don't make me want to eat the food right
away as much as they make me with I was Danish.


And from the other side of the world but very close in terms of attention to esthetic detail is a book on Japanese photographers from the 1960s and 1970s called, aptly, "Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s". The image above is titled "Fushi Kaden" by Issei Suda.


Here is another book featuring work of a Japanese artist. This time a person who was
declared a National Living Treasure in Japan. Keisuke Serizawa. He practiced and exulted
"mingei" which is "people craft". Especially textile design. The above spread shows his
stencil-dyed raw silk of Japanese syllables.


Finally this little book titled "Watercolour Patterns" by Joost Van Roojen. I can't remember
where I found this book. Maybe even at the prop house but I love the paintings and color
treatments by Roojen.



6 comments:

  1. VERY nice place....im jealous of your uncluttered look....love your book collection too i actually just purchased that serizwa....shouldnt you get a commission or something? love the photos of the matadors....jim you rule!

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  2. i like your minimalistic approach.

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  3. Shellie I knew you would know Serizawa. I saw the show at the Japan Society and they had a video of him and his process in his studio with a few quiet, intense assistants. It was mesmerizing. And yes, I like my apartment on West 34h street. This is a sort of unfashionable location in NYC. I moved here because it was so close to the studio on West 31st street. And now the new studio is weirdly just three blocks north of my apartment! So odd
    how that worked out...

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  4. i like this post! ...because i love taking sneak peaks into people's flats! the simple, minimalist interior is really nice. i'm going for that look too, but it's a bit difficult at times, cause stuff just seems to accumulate. anyway. thanks for sharing :)

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  5. Jim, I love your blog. The name is perfect. the cropped horizontal shot of your dining table is great! Thanks for letting us snoop around your place!

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  6. great apartment! love the clean lines.

    you commented on my post about workplaces a few weeks ago and suggested that offices have white walls for good reason.. and now I've posted a few colourful ones.. Would be nice if you could give your two cents on that.

    cheers
    -J

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