Taking a leap from photography to interior ; my latest project was both a challenging one as well as a natural-feeling one. Never having done a real interior project meant a lot of technical issues and decisions, for which I had to call in some help of a friend/interior designer who helped me out with the ‘big picture’ and a solid crew of technically skilled workers.
For the interior-finishing , I simply had to look at the backgrounds in some of my own photographs for lots of times I found myself with crew in a dusty old Hotel or a 30ties Trading company Building somewhere, and that was the atmosphere I wanted to project on to this new Home/studio.
The themes that have always inspired me throughout my photography career were “Hitchcock film-sets” as well as retro “Departmentstore window-displays” . (think Bullocks/ Los Angeles or the Samaritaine/Paris in the 1940ties )
The soft daylight that creeps in through glass skylights provided a perfect mood to transform that part of the Loft in one of those ‘painters-attics’, or 1940’s offices with the difference that it had to function in daily life as a Junior Hotel suite , complete with open fireplace. Much like an empty Hitchcock studio-set, but still comfortable enough ( and no mildew on the walls..), I took to surfing the internet looking for a secondhand gaslit fireplace in Art Deco style , and designed a 3- dimensional Wall-decor sculpture to be built as a Mantlepiece décor above the fireplace, ( starting with a small foamcore-maquette /see below )
Windowspace without mannequins…
Another theme that has always inspired me are the Departmentstore window-spaces, an example of such a strange world trapped inside a Bonwitt -Teller Bridal window display below.
HIDING a HITCHCOCK
OceanLiner Home ..
Toying with the concept for the house to become a photography & film location, the big pillared space should stay sparsely decorated. That way evoking the ‘abandoned’ sensation one gets in a department store after closing time , and at the same time keeping the floorspace usable for different kind of photoshoots.
Now, with the interior more or less finished ( complete with a 15ft tall mirrorwall ) , the Loft seems to work it’s magic, being comissioned by furniture or fashion brands, and easily transforming back from studio back into a contemporary loft. A home in which we spent many an evening wandering around, like a Hitchcock-extra who can’t ( and doesn’t want to ) find his way offset.
Samaritain 