Archive for category Photography

Orlando Diaz-Azcuy

Posted by Vicente in Photography, Random on June 10, 2009

orlando-diaz-azcuy1 At the art auction hosted by Elle Decor at 15 Union Square West last week I ran into the very talented Orlando Diaz-Azcuy who has just published a beautiful book. I was so honored when he told me that he’d love for me to take the photographs for his next book!

If you’d like a chance to win a copy of Orlando’s latest book, enter the competition that Decorati is running this week.

Trust me, you want this book as part of your collection.

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Veranda: July/August

Posted by Vicente in In the news, Photography, Projects on June 9, 2009

veranda-cover So excited about Veranda magazine publishing my apartment in the July/August issue!

But to be honest, it being published is not what I’m most excited about…what I’m really excited about are the photographs of my apartment that I took for this story.

Being an insecure individual I always feel that I won’t be good enough and that things won’t turn out right, but when you see these pictures you know that I could consider myself a decent interior photographer!

They’re in focus – which always surprises me – the lighting is right – which always surprises me – and the composition is also just right – another surprising factor!

I think you should go out and buy the new issue of Veranda and let me know what you think of it too.

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All the Best – what a party!

Posted by Vicente in Events, Friends, Photography on May 1, 2009

Preston, Ronda and I at the launch party this morning

After much preening and cleaning and hanging of pictures yesterday, we welcomed the fabulous Ronda Carman from All the Best Blog to the VW Home showroom this morning to launch our new partnership. During my most recent trip to Africa in January 2009 I spent some time in Sossusvlei in the desert of Namibia where I captured the most incredible photographs. We decided to offer a limited edition of these for sale to the readers of Ronda’s blog – and to you, of course!

The party this morning included some really wonderful people from New York’s design blogging scene including Michael Devine, Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo, the ever-stylish James Andrew, Tobi Fairley, Patricia van Essche and my good friend Preston Bailey – to name a few.

Someone fell in love with my wing chair! James Andrew and Ronda Carman

Here are some photos we took at the event – wish you could all have been here! The Namibia pictures are currently up in the showroom – please stop by if you’re in Manhattan. If you want to learn more about how to buy one, read the press release below, or visit www.allthebestblog.com.

Tyler Dawson, Amy Beth Cupp Dragoo, Ronda Carman and Chloe Warner

The really horrible, sad thing is that we’re expecting an enormous shipment to come in on Monday, so all the dusting and fluffing to have a beautiful showroom will be undone when tons of accessories and furniture from Indonesia, Thailand and India arrive – so the showroom will have to be taken apart to fit it all, but I am excited about the new pieces to add to the showroom-family.

It was so nice that Preston came – being such a busy, glamorous, party-giving, Mr Wonderful, super-star I really appreciated that he came to spend the morning with us. He did some shopping at VW Home while he was here and then he was off to try on his outfit for his birthday bash, which he will probably have to be stitched into just like Marilyn Monroe for JFK’s birthday party. But I bet you he won’t be a breathy when he sings it! (Unless the clothing is so tight that he won’t be able to breathe…)

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Photography – All the Best Blog

Posted by Vicente in Photography on May 1, 2009

Tree 1

After much planning the day has finally arrived…this morning we are launching an exclusive partnership with All the Best Blog, offering readers of Ronda’s journal (and all of you, of course!) a chance to buy some of my photography. I took these photos on my January trip to Namibia and cannot begin to explain the sheer size of these sand dunes, the abundance of sun and the endless amount of sand and desolation to you. Namibia is a minimalist’s dream…

Susan prepared a press release that explains the deal best, so I’ll just paste that here. If you want to own one of these pieces, please visit www.allthebestblog.com. There are only three of each of the six prints available, in two sizes.

Media Announcement – for release on Friday May 2, 2009

Vicente Wolf online partnership offers blog readers ‘All the Best’

Tree 2

In a new online partnership, New York designer and photographer Vicente Wolf is offering readers of the luxury lifestyle journal ‘All the Best Blog’ a chance to purchase a print from his limited edition photography collection titled ‘Trees of Namibia’, captured during a January 2009 trip to this south-west African country. The selection of photographs depicts the vastness of the Namib Desert where relentless sun and endless sand create haunting, ever-changing vistas.

Author of two books featuring his photography, Wolf recently entered the blogging world himself with an online journal that garnered over 3,000 readers in the first two weeks. This partnership with ‘All the Best Blog’ is an extension of the designer’s venture into the world of online business. “Blogs have become a very influential component of my firm’s marketing plan and this venture allows me to offer the public an opportunity to own an original piece of art at a fraction of art gallery prices,” Wolf says. Ronda Carman, author of All the Best Blog started forming new partnerships earlier this year when she joined forces with the prestigious London based Mr & Mrs Smith, a hotel review and booking agency. This venture with Wolf is a natural extension for her popular blog, which promises to offer its readers only the best. “It has always been my policy to only write about an item, product or service that I would own or use myself and I support, champion and believe in each company that I partner with,” Carman says.

Tree 5

And Carman felt naturally drawn to these memorable images, captured in the Sossusvlei area of the Namib Desert; a dry Camelthorn Tree watered by infrequent floods from the dry Tsauchab River, a lone bird perched on a leafless branch, an afternoon shadow cast against the base of a sand dune. “It took me two days to almost relax in this vast emptiness”, says Wolf of the experience. “For a minimalist, this is a haven.” The result is a series of haunting images, capturing lengthy shadows, structural trees and some of the highest dunes in the world. Add to this an exclusive online partnership and you have a promise to extend Wolf’s passion for exploring the unknown that is truly All the Best.

Tree 4

A limited run of three prints per image – three black and white and three in full color – are available for purchase exclusively through the ‘All the Best’ blog in two sizes, framed with the buyer’s choice of a black or white frame. For more information, point your browser to www.allthebestblog.com or call Susan at 212.465.0590.

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Saturday Art Day

Posted by Vicente in Art, Events, Photography on March 7, 2009

I’m very excited about today’s Armory Art show at the Pier. The NY Times said yesterday that all the dealers are very cautious, but it’s always informative to see what people are focusing on in art and that’s what interests me most. It seems that every Saturday is becoming ‘Art Day’ in some way or another. At last year’s Pier show there were great deals to be found on photography and videos. It seems that each year there is a focus for the majority of the dealers – usually probably not planned, but more likely what is in the air at the moment. I’ll be sure to let you know what I thought.

As a collector it’s always wonderful when somebody wants to borrow part of your collection to have in a show. The Howard Greenberg Gallery is having a retrospective on Steichen and Munkasci and they have borrowed three pieces from my collection. It’s fun to share what I get to live with all the time with people on special exhibits like these.

On the topic of design, at the final presentation by the Parsons School of Design students yesterday morning, it was rewarding to know that by giving a little bit of your time and input you can affect the thinking process of students. From the original presentation 3 weeks ago to the final one they showed me yesterday, there was a whole expanse of thinking that showed much more freedom and trust in their own taste. If you’re in New York at the end of March, be sure to visit this year’s Dining by Design to see the table settings. Besides it being a learning experience, and giving you new ideas on getting creative with your table settings, it helps DIFFA’s good cause.

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Dune inspiration

Posted by Vicente in Photography, Projects on March 3, 2009

On my trip to Namibia the way the wind moved the sand and formed patterns and shapes that constantly evolved, got my creative juices flowing. This morning I presented my ideas for a new carpet collection to Tufenkian, which they accepted.

What I think will make it really special are the different color tones we incorporated, along with the sculptured aspect we’re including. While I was definitely not a fan of sculptured carpets in the ‘70s, I think that when it is reinterpreted in a softer, more modern way, it will bring the images from Namibia to life in these designs.

Another idea that they liked was a collection of carpets inspired by the broad brush strokes of Vincent van Gogh.

Next step is for them to create some mock ups of my designs and I’m really excited about this.

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Orchids and photography

Posted by Vicente in Events, Photography on February 27, 2009

The Botanical Gardens is one of New York’s prized possessions and Tuesday night’s Orchid Dinner was really magical. What made it extra special was the fact that it was held at the Rainbow Room, which holds so many memories for me like attending the premier of Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra pieces more than 25 years ago. The dinner was a really wonderful and glamorous event and my neighbors at the dinner table were editor-in-chief of Veranda, Lisa Newsom, with whom I had great discussions about design and everything else, and Jane Pauley, who is always interesting to speak with. I grow orchids myself that bloom – which in New York is quite a rarity - mainly due to my housekeeper who sprays them with water all the time.

What a great evening!

My table top design for the orchid dinner.

Yesterday I had an all-day shoot with Veranda Magazine, photographing one of my jobs with the Editor-at-Large, Carolyn Englefield. It’s so nice to step out of my designer mode into the photography one, putting that side of my brain to work. It’s wonderful to look through the camera and see how the light hit the arm of the chair at that moment and be able to capture it. For somebody with dyslexia to fully understand the mechanics of taking a photograph, which, trust me, took a long time to sink in, is a great experience.

I’m waiting for the film to come in and I always keep my fingers crossed that it’ll come out the way I saw it on the shoot.

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At the Tate

Posted by Vicente in Art, Photography on February 20, 2009

Last week the Rodchenko & Popova show opened at the new Tate Gallery in London. I’m happy to say that some of the photographs from my collection are in it. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the opening, but it’s always such a thrill to know that photographs from my collection are being shared with other people.

From seeing the catalog the show is so comprehensive, really exposing all of his work, from paintings to collages to photographs to typography.

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Namibia

Posted by Vicente in Friends, Photography, Travels on February 10, 2009

Most people find traveling horrific. I love to get on a plane – the longer the flight, the more I like it. And flying from Santiago to Johannesburg was one of those trips. I flew Santiago to Sao Paolo, from Sao Paolo to Johannesburg, and then from Johannesburg to Windhoek (the capital of Namibia). This trip doesn’t really compare to one I took from Johannesburg to New Delhi, which took 13 hours, but more about that on another day. There aren’t that many places where no one can reach you by email, phone you, page you, and you can watch three movies, eat two meals, sleep and not have to move from your chair much. Flying is one of my favorite recreations.

What can I say about Namibia besides the fact that I almost died there? I could use three, no four words to describe it; sand, sand, sand and color! For three years I’ve wanted to go there and for three years something had come up and stopped me from going. But this year, nothing was getting between me and my trip to Namibia!

My friend Iva Spitzer and I planned our trip carefully, despite the high cost of travel there and I made a point of planning to see every aspect that the country has to offer. One of the biggest surprises was the sparseness of its population – the country is the size of Texas and France combined and only has a total population of 4 million people. The streets in Windhoek are cleaner than anything you’ll see anywhere else, every house is painted nicely and the word ‘traffic jam’ has not yet entered the Namibian vocabulary. Part of the reason I went is because Susan, my Director of Public Relations (and the person typing this blog as I don’t touch computers), comes from there and has sung its praises to no end. I had to go see it for myself.

Most of the traveling in the country is done by small four- to six-seater planes that fly from Windhoek to all the various camps that exist throughout. My first stop was up north near the Angolan border and the airstrip was a road of rocks delineating the strip in the middle of nowhere, a small building with a unisex toilet and probably some desert lizard that runs around the desert, for this was all there was. For a minimalist, this is a haven.
On my first day we went out to see the Himba tribes, hiking on sand dunes that are beyond ones sense of the scale of what a sand dune should be. (They’re actually mountains made out of sand.) Everyone at the camp was very accommodating and I got to interact with people from all over – Australia, Canada, France, Italy…a group of maybe nine or ten people. Iva and I had our own Land Rover and guide, which made it a much more serene way of traveling. At the Himba tribe the ladies are quite spectacular – all covered in mud. They rub their bodies and hair with a mud mixture every day – part to offer protection from the poisonous Namibian sun and as a beauty detail. From what I was told they never wash their hair – it’s all mud and animal fat.
Life here is very simple. You milk the goat, you walk the trail, you try to catch a tourist once in a while and you mud yourself. These people very rarely travel outside their realm of nomad grazing areas and once in a while see the tourists that stay at the camp.

I saw Wildebeest, Giraffes, Springbok, Wild Ostrich, Elephants and even a poisonous Puffadder on our hike. Oh, and did I mention the sand? Everywhere. Just relentless sand. It’s truly a surreal environment, where, if lost, you will never find your way.

An excursion on a quad bike ended for me with a fractured arm, black and blue face (no make-up either!) and two days in hospital. But don’t think that this colored my opinion about Namibia. I found it to be an experience never to be forgotten. Areas like the Skeleton Coast where you see whale bones and seal sculls and a humungous dead tortoise, shipwrecks from the early ‘20’s, turned out to be a wonderful day at the beach – photographing and walking miles without seeing anything man-made.

I got a couple of great seal sculls for my scull collection and, in addition to my quad bike accident, I got an extraordinary sunburn. But again, don’t feel that this in any way discolored more than my skin!

In Damaraland we tracked huge desert elephants and we drove through the dunes while sitting on the roof of our Land Rover. We saw Hereros (who wear fantastic dresses and headpieces), more dunes, the best of which was in Sossusvlei. The petrified trees took my breath away and I spent a whole day there photographing – truly a memorable experience. There were no clouds while I was there and the sunsets were non-existent until the last day when some cloud cover offered the most exquisite sunset. Pinks, mauves, reds and oranges blended with the color of the sanddunes and constantly changed until it was dark and eerily quiet. What an exquisite display of color!

I think a highlight in Namibia was Sossusvlei with the highest dunes in the world. The petrified trees are a photographer’s delight and the progress of vistas offered by the ever-changing landscape play with your sense of scale and depth of fi

eld due to the color of the sand. Another highlight was The Skeleton Coast – to spend a whole day and never see anybody else, walk through these fields of whale skeletons that have been there for over 100 years…the desolation you experience in this country is one that makes you become very introspective and makes you wonder about the lives that we live here in New York with so much stimulus…it took me two days to sort of chill in this vastness of emptiness.

Is it one of my favorite places I’ve been to? No. One of the most colorful? Definitely.

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Easter Island

Posted by Vicente in Photography, Travels on February 9, 2009

To say that I’m happy to be back is to have my nose grow even bigger than it is already! As I flew into New York last night the grey clouds that hung over the city were really visible.

But don’t feel bad. Every country I visited had a grey cloud over it at some point. And everyone said that now that Obama is president things will be different. Poor guy…what a responsibility!

On to the fun parts, however – after flying for 18 hours from New York I arrived in Easter Island in December for a 5 day stay. It’s a triangular shaped island with not much vegetation and very attractive people (and a population of only 1800 inhabitants). I stayed at the Explora En Rapa Nui Hotel, which was great. It was slightly out of the way and very green (environmentally friendly), with a great restaurant; as much Chilean wine as you can drink, good food and all tours included.

Easter Island is a great place for hiking and horseback riding and the Moai are beyond anybody’s wildest expectations. I always thought they faced out to the ocean, but they actually look in towards the villages, overlooking the chief’s grave. Interestingly enough, the Moai were brought over when a chief died and positioned to watch over the grave and the village beyond. It’s believed that only once their eyes were placed in the socket, would the chief’s spirit start looking out for the village and its people. The experience of traveling and hiking through this island, that has a bigger horse population than people – was wonderful.

A highlight was visiting the dormant volcanoes where now there are small lakes throughout at the bottom of the caldera – there’s an incredible ecosystem with fruit trees and plants growing in the bottom. I’ve never seen water that has almost a purple-blue cast to it. It was truly incredible.

It certainly takes a long time to fly there, but the experience of visiting this island for 5 days will take a long time for me to forget. I found it to be incredibly peaceful, very, very friendly and one of the names on my list of places to visit that I can now tick off.

I leave for Washington DC tomorrow evening to go put the finishing touches on a new hotel for Kimpton, the Lorien Hotel and Spa. I’ll be sure to share photos of this project with you once it’s launched on Thursday. In the meantime, be sure to send me a ‘friend request’ on Facebook – I have joined cyber space in the social networking realm and will post more photos from my travels on there.

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