ROB MEYERS
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
THROUGH HI S W I D E A ND VA R I E D CONTACTS I N THE M A G A Z I NE , A RTS AN D I N TERI ORS W OR L DS, R OB M E Y E R S SE N T A BATCH OF D I SP OSA B L E C A M E R A S O U T TO A VARIE TY OF A RTI STS, M U SI C I A N S , PHOTOGR A P H E R S A ND E DI TOR S A SKIN G I F THEY W OU L D TA KE P I C TU R E S OF TH EI R FAVOURI TE PA RTS OF TH E I R H OM E , RAN GI NG F R OM THE I R M OST TR E A SU RED PI ECE OF F U R NI TU R E TO THE L I G HT I N THEI R FAVOU R I TE R OOM AT A C E RTA I N POI NT OF THE DAY. TH E ONLY R U L E : T H EY HAD TO PH OTOG R A P H TH E C ONTE NT S O F THEI R FRI D G E . M U C H TO HI S SU R P R I S E AND DELI G H T, M A NY P E OP L E SE NT B A CK N OT JUST ONE , B U T SE VE R A L C A M E R A S FULL OF I MA G E S. THE RESULT I S A U NI QU E , I NTI M ATE I N SI GHT I N TO TH E HOM E S OF SOM E OF THE W OR L D’ S M OST I NTE R E STI NG PEOPLE. WA ND E R A R OU ND TH E HOU S ES OF COURTNE Y L OVE , M A RTH A STE WART, JEREMY SC OTT, NI C OL A F OR M I C H E TT I , MARC QUINN, TAVI G E VI NSON A ND MO RE. GET AN I N SI G HT I NTO H OW TH E Y L I V E, T H E PARTS OF THE I R H OM E THAT B E ST D EFI N E THEM, AN D W H AT TH E Y L I KE TO E AT FO R SUPPER. B E HI ND C L OSE D D OOR S I S A SURPRI SI NG A ND I NSP I R I NG I NSI G H T I N T O THE HOME S OF SOM E OF THE W OR L D ’ S MOST EXC I TI NG C R E ATI VE M I ND S.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
VINCE ALETTI GARY CARD CONOR DONLON OLEG DOU NICOLA FORMICHETTI SIMON FOXTON TAV I G E V I N S O N TERENCE KOH COURTNEY LOVE AIMEE MULLINS MARC QUINN MARTIN R AY M O N D + CHRIS SANDERSON JEREMY SCOTT MARVIN SCOTT JARRETT CHRISTOPHER SIMMONDS LORD PEREGRINE + C AT H E R I N E S T GERMANS MARTHA STEWART M AT T H E W STONE
T H E P R I VAT E H O M E S O F 25 OF THE WORLD’S MOST C R E AT I V E P E O P L E
KYLE STEWART + JO SINDLE £20.00 ISBN 978-174270652-8
OLIVIER THEYSKENS
ROB MEYERS
9 781742 706528 INTERIORS
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CONTENTS. P R E FA C E FOREWORD BY RUPERT THOMAS INTRODUCTION COURTNEY LOVE LORD PEREGRINE + C AT H E R I N E S T GERMANS JEREMY SCOTT AIMEE MULLINS CHRISTOPHER SIMMONDS MARTHA STEWART MR + MRS LORIMER M AT T H E W S T O N E TERENCE KOH OLIVIER THEYSKENS VINCE ALETTI KYLE STEWART + JO SINDLE
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CONTENTS. 163
173 183 191 201 211 221 231
239
253 255
MARVIN SCOTT JARRETT GARY CARD OLEG DOU MARC QUINN CONOR DONLON TAV I G E V I N S O N SIMON FOXTON M A R T I N R AY M O N D + CHRIS SANDERSON NICOLA FORMICHETTI THANK YOU ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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P R E FA C E . HOW IT AL L BE G AN
T
his book began in 2007, when a friend
reasoned? Then, to
told me how amazing
my surprise, people
a mutual friend’s
started saying yes.
house was. I visited
They seemed to like
and fell in love with their interior
the idea that it
style; it was so personal, strong,
was non-intrusive.
vibrant, intimate and for the
I wasn’t going to
most part, unseen. I left feeling
visit myself and
inspired, but also a little sad
they could choose
that I didn’t get to live there.
what to share.
Over the next few days I couldn’t
stop thinking about this space.
started coming back
Then the cameras
interning between fashion and style
– and they’re still
by interiors. My mum worked in
bibles POP and Arena Homme+, and
coming. Some of the
interior design in the late 80s and
working with some big personalities,
photos surprise me,
early 90s and memories of that time
big looks and even bigger egos – it
some don’t. But they
have stuck; whether the beauty of
was and is all part of the fun.
all inspire me.
bold and innovative modern spaces
And I started to wonder what all
Sometimes I get a
or the hell of hand-ragged walls
these incredible characters’ homes
whole house, other
and chintz on chintz that persisted
looked like. What if someone who
times it’s just
as a hangover from the 1980s.
was perfectly polished and put
one room. Sometimes
together in public actually lived
I get the full
in a hoarders’ dream-home? Would
twenty-seven images
their perfectly pressed camel coat
back, sometimes my
really have been pulled from a poky
contributors only
wardrobe, the moth holes hidden on
choose to take
the inside? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
ten images. And
I’ve always been fascinated
By the time I visited the
aforementioned home of note, I was
But I was intrigued. So I started asking people to share their homes.
Using my own home as a starting
point, I shot a single roll of film and sent the results, along with a letter asking for the same, to the first few contributors – after all, why would people share their homes if I wouldn’t share mine, I
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PREFAC E. HOW IT A LL BE GA N
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taking those quiet moments and sharing them with myself and a wider audience.
This project has
been running now for five years. It began life as part of my final year project at Central Saint Martins and was then developed
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sometimes, just occasionally,
by London-based Garage
I get one image – but
magazine, who helped
sometimes one image is all
me source some amazing
you need.
homes after inviting
the ‘Behind Closed
I think the most amazing
thing about this process is
Doors’ concept into
that, for the most part, the
the pages of their
homeowners themselves don’t
biannual art and
see the images before I do.
fashion publication.
They shoot blind and return
Then, I continued it
the camera undeveloped,
on my own, sometimes
generous and trusting, not
leaving it untouched
knowing what it contains. So
for months, other
I hope they’re as excited to
times working on it
see these images now as I am
frenziedly as cameras
when I first receive a camera
flowed in from across
back in the mail and rush to
the world on a daily
have it developed.
basis. Finally, it’s
ready to share.
A lot of people ask: why
a disposable camera? Why
don’t you just go to the
showcase twenty-five
house yourself and shoot it
homes – personal
‘properly’? And my response
favourites selected
is always the same: if I was
by me and my small
coming over to your house,
team. Thank you to
and I’d never seen it before,
those that have had
would you make the bed and
the generosity and
tidy up and artfully arrange
kindness to take a
things before I arrive? Most
simple disposable
people say ‘yes, of course’,
camera and walk around
and then they realise the
their private space
purpose of the project.
pressing a simple
It’s not about capturing a
plastic button twenty-
‘perfect home’, it’s about
seven times. I hope
revealing a personal space;
you enjoy it.
The following pages
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PREFAC E. HOW IT A LL BE GA N
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PREFA CE . HOW IT A LL BE GA N
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PREFAC E. HOW IT A LL BE GA N
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FOREWORD. ‘BE HIN D CLO S E D DO ORS A S A CONCE P T ’
H
ow would you react if someone asked you to photograph where you live?
Exactly what you shoot will be up to you. And here’s a ready-loaded Happy Snap camera just to make the experience even more effortless. Just point and press.
You’d imagine such open-ended
has pulled off this
flattery would be hard to resist?
project with aplomb.
But my guess is that it’s never
Such contributor-led
quite as easy as that. Having
productions can be an
undertaken related projects myself,
agony and an ecstasy. But
I can vouch for the fact that a
they can also be well
keen ‘I’d love to’ can often turn
worth the hassle.
to a lukewarm ‘I’m sorry, there just wasn’t time’, just as the
Obviously every house
deadline looms. So I have nothing
is a portrait of its
but admiration for Rob Myers who
owner. The things they – we – leave out are as telling as the things they leave in. But whereas in conventional magazine we glimpse interiors through the prism of that title’s house style, in Behind
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dwellings? The book positively pulsates with phalluses both photographic and painted. I’ve clearly been missing a trick.
Rob Meyers’ clever and well thought out decision to give contributors control over how we see where they live has paid dividends. This is a book that does what its cover promises: allows
Closed Doors the contributors
a scintillatingly
have been left to their
voyeuristic glimpse
own devices. So here are
behind the public
unexpurgated self portraits
facade of some
taken by stars from music
clever, creative
and fashion, incumbents
and refreshingly
of a wonderfully crumbling
individual people.
country house and owners of idiosyncratic urban
Rupert Thomas
apartments. Of course the
Editor
things these people have chosen
The World of Interiors
to show are as keenly edited as artful magazine shoots which feature armfuls of flowers and cushions plumped to within an inch of their lives. The seemingly spontaneous rumpled beds and messy shelves are just as orchestrated. And, to me at least, all the more telling and interesting they are for that.
The things shared are as varied as you’d hope, from the expected piles of magazines and books, to a surprising collection of wedding-cake figurines. And who knew so many male genitals would be dangling around these
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