Leslie Williamson's work explores people and the spaces they inhabit. Trained as a portraitist, she has straddled the line between fine art and the commercial world throughout her career, preferring the space in between. Her most recognized work includes interior portraits, captured through photography and writing, where she depicts artists and designers with sensitivity, humor, and genuine affection.
Featuring a stunning collection of photographs, this book showcases iconic and lesser-known mid-century interiors designed by renowned architects and designers. It captures the personal spaces of influential figures like Walter Gropius and Charles and Ray Eames, revealing how they lived in their creative environments. The images highlight the warmth and artistry of domestic modernism, showcasing unique features such as Gropius's Bauhaus home and Esherick's handcrafted residence. This intimate glimpse into their lives emphasizes the beauty and innovation of mid-century design.
Explore the unique homes and studios of 15 remarkable artists, showcasing their creative spaces that range from Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch to Isamu Noguchi's serene Japanese retreat. This collection also highlights lesser-known gems, including Gordon Onslow Ford's California haven, offering insights into the environments that inspired these artists' work and the intimate relationship between their art and living spaces.
This intimate portrait of both iconic and unknown midcentury European designers and architectural masterpieces reveals an inspiring personal approach to modernism. This gorgeously photographed volume features the intimate and private spaces of both the icons and unknown vanguards of European midcentury architecture and design. Showcasing the functional beauty of midcentury design, Modern Originals presents the innovative homes by some of the most compelling and influential European midcentury designers, including Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Finn Juhl, Robin and Lucienne Day, and Gae Aulenti, to name a few. Williamson gained exclusive access to homes that are often closed to the public, and this intimacy is reflected in her richly detailed photographs. Each chapter is dedicated to a single home where the interiors are intact as they were lived in by their designers. Examples include the iconic Studio Achille Castiglioni in Milan; the Helsinki home of Aino and Alvar Aalto with signs of functionalism preserved; Finn Juhl's Scandinavian farmhouse, with warm woods and bursts of primary colors; and Carlo Mollino's eccentric Italian lair filled with his sensually shaped designs. This rare glimpse into the personal spaces of legendary designers in the midcentury canon reveals the highest expression of their ideas created for the most demanding of clients: themselves.
Acclaimed photographer, author, and Bay Area native Leslie Williamson returns
to her roots with a tribute to the most fertile soil for creativity:
California.
