Interiors
- Thread starter blacktulip
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blacktulip
Pregnant with mandrakes
Leo
Well-known member
ya know...not a big deal but something about that whole concept has always rubbed me the wrong way. it's like buying new faded or ripped jeans, or shoes made to look like they are worn and scuffed up. those things are cool when they've happened naturally, not when they are consciously prefabricated to be so.
guess i'm just not a fan of "faux".
blacktulip
Pregnant with mandrakes
blacktulip
Pregnant with mandrakes
I think the question of artifice is a dead end in this context. Either you live your life like Vogue and World of Interiors are due to pop round at any minute, or you tart the place up when they do, or you don't give a shit either way. No single one of these is of particular interest to me. I just enjoy looking at the pictures.
Leo
Well-known member
ha...rereading, it sounds like a "rockest vs. i-just-enjoy-it-for-the-music" debate applied to design! i thought you meant it was done by a professional stylist.
fair enough, i know what you mean. i'm just saying a look/lifestyle doesn't hold the same interest to me when it's intensionally created instead of just happening naturally over time. both can be pretty, but one approach seems less interesting when it's purchased off the shelf, so to speak.
fair enough, i know what you mean. i'm just saying a look/lifestyle doesn't hold the same interest to me when it's intensionally created instead of just happening naturally over time. both can be pretty, but one approach seems less interesting when it's purchased off the shelf, so to speak.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I dunno actually - I think that there's an interest both in a purely fabricated image of lifestyle / clothing / interior design as a sort of idealised representation of the subject (or just as something aesthetically pleasing in itself) and in actually realistically photographing how someone lives.
I guess I am a bit bothered by stuff that blurs the boundary, though - stuff that really does say "here is an extraordinary bohemian intellectual lifestyle that you bourgeois plebs can't even begin to aspire to" when in fact there's a comfy sofa and a bunch of random books and clutter and spare bedding and so on just out of shot...
I do love those pictures, though. They feel almost like a lost world, though - is there anyone who'd have an interior like that (ersatz or otherwise) today?
I guess I am a bit bothered by stuff that blurs the boundary, though - stuff that really does say "here is an extraordinary bohemian intellectual lifestyle that you bourgeois plebs can't even begin to aspire to" when in fact there's a comfy sofa and a bunch of random books and clutter and spare bedding and so on just out of shot...
I do love those pictures, though. They feel almost like a lost world, though - is there anyone who'd have an interior like that (ersatz or otherwise) today?
Leo
Well-known member
yeah, i think you nailed it. the pre-fabricated environment/lifestyle can have it's own appeal and value when acknowledged, a bit less so when done covertly.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I was reminded a bit of this thread - particularly the Cy Twombly bits - when we went to look at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge today. It's a similar mix of a gallery and a place to live, with the art - mostly St Ives stuff, plus a couple of Miros and some other odds and ends - beautifully complementing the atmospehere of the place and the furnishing. It felt a little bit more like a home than the Twombly pictures, although that's probably partly because you're looking around the whole place and seeing the bathroom and the dining table rather than just the most artfully minimal angles the photographer could find. It was very sparse and very lovely, but at the same time you could actually imagine living there and sitting reading some Ezra Pound while occasionally stopping to look thoughtfully at the Ben Nicholson painting across the room.
It helps that you're positively encouraged to sit on the chairs and settees on the grounds that that's how the place is really meant to be appreciated...
I can't really find photos that do the space justice, although these are nice:
It helps that you're positively encouraged to sit on the chairs and settees on the grounds that that's how the place is really meant to be appreciated...
I can't really find photos that do the space justice, although these are nice:
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