Behind Closed Doors by Rizzoli International Publications

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

013 031

037 039 051

065 077 081

089 099 111 121 131 141 153

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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

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 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 ’

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

032

male genitals would be dangling around these

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