“Jewel Box”

Designer: Vicente Wolf

Text and Photography by Vicente Wolf

This issue – Musée Magazine No. 2 – deals with fear, and there are some scary things in it.

More and more magazines are only shooting digital these days, if not all magazines. As most of you know I shoot film, which took me about 7 years to master (due to my slow absorption process). Next week I am shooting a job for a magazine digitally.  It should be an interesting experience and will definitely push my boundaries. I will let you know how it goes….painful or not!

I have been anxiously waiting for this to come out!  I am very pleased with how AD was able to take pieces from my travel journal and photos to create this great column. Reading it was like revisiting Mali all over again.  

Thank you Margaret Russell & team, it looks incredible!

We had to be there by 7:30am to be seated in the bleachers that thankfully had shelter from the weather. The morning was very cold and it got increasingly colder and colder as the day went on.  But it was nothing because we got the see the Rockets, hundreds of kids from all over country dancing and banging on their instruments ( sometimes huddled in groups to stay warm),  Broadway performances, and of course the floats and the balloons.  

The Rockettes

Keeping Warm

There is nothing like seeing Spiderman floating down the street with The Empire State Building in the background.   The day was a great send off to my trip to Florence.

Spiderman

Kermit

Hello Kitty

Kung Fu Panda

Confetti

Via Editor At Large

This weekend while reading The New York Times I stumbled upon the ad below. It reminded how much I enjoyed doing this project and everyone’s comments on my selection. The majority of the comments I have received either on the computer or in person have been about depth of the collection and how some of you could tell that it was curated by a photography collector. Which is a great compliment.  Thank you all for your support and thank you again New York Times for including me in this great project.

The New York Times

In Good Company

When I was approached by The New York Times to curate ten photos from their archives for the 50 photos project, I was beyond elated. I have been collecting photo for the last 37 years and having the opportunity to go into the NY Times archives was an unbelievable thrill. I put together a grouping of images that represent a foundation for a photography collection.  I selected images from a collector’s point of view not from an interior designer’s point of view. This gave me a clear direction in how to approach this process which otherwise could be overwhelming. 

The grouping  gives you a range of photos from 1910’s- 40’s -50’s -60’s -70’s and up to 2008, it is important to me to have images in a collection that capture you each time you look at them and make you think about what you are looking at. I think these 10 images do that.

To go through the New York Times archives is looking at the history of this country and especially this city. The photos take you from Grand Central to Hollywood to Global events.  They capture very intimate moments to historical world events.  Only the New York Times could give you an overview of our global history in such a masterful way.

To look at the collections that have been put together by the 5 of us, gives you a clear impression of who the designers are.

Geisha, Tokyo

At the Funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

You can see the whole project here

Photo: Grant Perigo

Vicente Responds:

Gary, thank you for all your comments on this blog – your view and opinion is always appreciated! Different magazines have different points of views and photography briefs. Elle Decor likes natural light with sun coming in and maintains an American freshness in its approach to photography. AD chosses a lot of room lighting, inside and out which sets a different mode. If you shoot your space, shoot it however you feel it looks best. As it pertains to the angle, it depends on the lens. Wide angle, 50mm, close up? Shooting a room is an arduous process of moving the furniture so nothing stands in front of another, eliminating clutter and you have to keep going back and forth to the camera to make sure it looks just right.

Regarding lighting – so many photographers now use digital which makes it a much easier process. I still shoot using film and a Pentax medium format camera – 75mm makes rooms look a little more intimate, 50mm gets more space out of it. I believe that sometimes its better to have the photographs more intimate as it allows you to truly explore the room.

I just signed with the NY times to go through their photo archives and pick ten images that would work well as a collection. I think it’s such a wonderful way for people to start a photo collection of their own. There will be some pictures of New York, celebrities and of course some good old classics. I think for a good price, one will be able to get some great collectable pieces.

As soon as we are ready to launch, I will link this blog to their site. What a great project to work on!