Shoot, Shoot, Sh#@$%***
Fitzpatrick-Peg had a good point a post back about photography as a record of what was done to a building before the walls were closed up and as a documentary of the overall devastation that occurs during a remodel. We tend to forget the pain of the ordeal a few years later; perhaps like childbirth, they tell me. It’s good to haul those pix out again as you contemplate your next project.
Let’s talk about glamour photography. (I watched Napoleon Dynamite this weekend. It’s a great film, and one of the characters does door-to-door glamour shots.). When you look at any design magazine, what you are seeing is a glamour shot of a space. Giselle Bundschen and Laetitia Casta look good, but THEY NEVER LOOK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE. During a photo session there is one person whose sole object in life for those few hours is to make sure every strand of their hair is in place. (Don’t you wish he’d follow us around all day?) Another whose job it is to ensure their skin glints in precisely the right spot. And let’s not even start with the computer graphics pro who will digitally erase every untoward dimple. Those goddesses can’t possibly suffer cellulite?
The same is true of interior spaces. Even projects in Metropolitan Home NEVER, EVER, LOOK THAT WAY IN REAL LIFE. Okay, maybe. But only if the household employs a full-time maid and flower service, and someone is standing in the garden holding that light reflector just so. Often, the accessories and artwork aren’t even the ones that are actually in the space from day to day, but are imported, especially for the shot.
An interior design photo shoot is a day-long or longer work of drudgery, sweat and neurosis. I have to do one next week, and I’m dreading it. On a shoot for the big magazines, dozens of people may be on site to prep and preen every detail; photographer, art director, stylist, floral designer, and assorted grunts and gofers will insure no speck of dust shows on a countertop or water spots on a window. On my shoot, there will be two people; Tamela Ryatt of Ryatt Photo, architectural photographer extraordinaire and my trusted interiors documentarian, and me, acting as harried art director, stylist and all those other minions in one.
Now with digital photography and Photoshop, things are more forgiving, but it doesn’t change the fact that, even if you spend seven figures, YOUR HOUSE WILL NEVER LOOK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE.
Giselle and Laetitia are there to sell us drawerfuls of lingerie and skin creams. The airbrushed gals in Playboy and Maxim are there to sell men beer, hairplugs and more porn. The super-styled interiors that we all drop our jaws over are to sell us thousand-dollar toilets, fifty-dollar-a square-foot tile and a complete x-number-of-dollars kitchen, bath or whole house.
Become aware of what is being sold to you. Look hard at those photos. Then examine what you really need for your remodel.
Let’s talk about glamour photography. (I watched Napoleon Dynamite this weekend. It’s a great film, and one of the characters does door-to-door glamour shots.). When you look at any design magazine, what you are seeing is a glamour shot of a space. Giselle Bundschen and Laetitia Casta look good, but THEY NEVER LOOK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE. During a photo session there is one person whose sole object in life for those few hours is to make sure every strand of their hair is in place. (Don’t you wish he’d follow us around all day?) Another whose job it is to ensure their skin glints in precisely the right spot. And let’s not even start with the computer graphics pro who will digitally erase every untoward dimple. Those goddesses can’t possibly suffer cellulite?
The same is true of interior spaces. Even projects in Metropolitan Home NEVER, EVER, LOOK THAT WAY IN REAL LIFE. Okay, maybe. But only if the household employs a full-time maid and flower service, and someone is standing in the garden holding that light reflector just so. Often, the accessories and artwork aren’t even the ones that are actually in the space from day to day, but are imported, especially for the shot.
An interior design photo shoot is a day-long or longer work of drudgery, sweat and neurosis. I have to do one next week, and I’m dreading it. On a shoot for the big magazines, dozens of people may be on site to prep and preen every detail; photographer, art director, stylist, floral designer, and assorted grunts and gofers will insure no speck of dust shows on a countertop or water spots on a window. On my shoot, there will be two people; Tamela Ryatt of Ryatt Photo, architectural photographer extraordinaire and my trusted interiors documentarian, and me, acting as harried art director, stylist and all those other minions in one.
Now with digital photography and Photoshop, things are more forgiving, but it doesn’t change the fact that, even if you spend seven figures, YOUR HOUSE WILL NEVER LOOK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE.
Giselle and Laetitia are there to sell us drawerfuls of lingerie and skin creams. The airbrushed gals in Playboy and Maxim are there to sell men beer, hairplugs and more porn. The super-styled interiors that we all drop our jaws over are to sell us thousand-dollar toilets, fifty-dollar-a square-foot tile and a complete x-number-of-dollars kitchen, bath or whole house.
Become aware of what is being sold to you. Look hard at those photos. Then examine what you really need for your remodel.
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