Starting to wonder if I need to hire someone to keep my site current. My last post was in April…
So much has happened, not quite sure how to recap. Why not start with this: I have a story in the August issue of Architectural Digest that is significant to me on several different levels. I am now reaching rather far back, and I promise, there will be a pay off at the end, if you decide to bear with me…
I moved to New York in 1995 to assist fashion photographers. It didn’t take too long until I realized that fashion photography wasn’t my true calling, but still assisted in the fashion world while building my first portfolio of architectural and travel photography. The last person I assisted for before turning that corner to make my living exclusively from my own photography was Kelly Klein. She was at the beginning of her own career as a photographer and one of the nicest, most appreciative and generous “bosses” one can wish for in the high strung world of fashion photography. I recall her letting me photograph her apartment in the city to include it in my portfolio, as I was trying to start my own career. Throughout the years we stayed loosely in contact, some of my pictures are in her books on Pools, and most importantly I consider her a friend. Prior to Kelly, there was another photographer I assisted for, just as she started to switch careers from stylist to becoming a photographer, that became one of the great and inspirational encounters on my path in life and photography, Anita Calero. There is much that connects me to her personally, if not for her style, musical tastes and “aura” alone.
Fast forward to 2005. My “big break” in editorial photography came in the form of my first assignment for the New York Times Magazine that marked the beginning of a relationship with the magazine and in particular with Pilar Viladas, the design editor, that has lasted until this day. That first assignment was a private house in Watermill, NY, designed by the architect firm 1100 Architect. I met Juergen Riehm during that shoot, one of the company’s two principals and 1100 has since become one of my clients.
Fast forward to the day of my last post here, April 5th 2012. That very day, Architectural Digest called saying they had a great project for me to shoot in Palm Beach, without giving any further information. Later it turned out, the project was Kelly Klein’s new beach house, designed by 1100 Architect. The result can be seen in the August issue, with some excerpts online here. The opening page, the portrait of Kelly with her son Lukas, shows them sitting in her living room. Behind them, prominently on display, are two beautiful large scale photographs by Anita. So for me, as coincidence met with fate, this was a jewel of an assignment, where I got to photograph the home of someone I “love”, built by people I highly respect and with the added spirit and presence through her art of someone very special and dear to me. Full circles.