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Why are we so fascinated by the lives of others? There is something almost indescribably satisfactory about a look behind in someone's house. Curiosity is full, yes, but curiosity is doubly gratifying when you learn more about others by observing how they live. Not to mention what he tells you about yourself – what furniture or arts draw your attention, to be revisited later or internalized in one way or another. Conceive inspiration so to speak.
It is a large part of the appeal of a new interior book, Living Parisin which photographer Guillaume de Laubier, whose work was presented in Interiors And VogueConcentrates its objective on 19 Parisian houses. As he explains in the book, “each of these Parisian interiors, of various districts through the city, offers an overview of the secret and intimate life of those who live there, whether artists, designers, owners of galleries, architects or stylists.”
From the shores of the Seine to the marches of Montmartre, of Laubier offers a visit to Paris while you rarely see, its paintings studied with sophisticated but warm and charming houses capturing their interiors as well as indices of the city outside and Parisians who reach it.
This is illustrated by the owners of Galerie Didier and Clemence Krzentowski Bankside Belle-Epoque Apartment. Even the view of the Eiffel Tower turned alongside the works of art organized by experts hosted and arranged in all their house – like a Pierre Paulin electric sofa and a Mirror of Ettrasass (not the omnipresent mirror, constantly, it is more restricted, ultrafrago, but the mirror of the Sandretta table).
More specifically, there is also a copper band, a Danish artist's play Danh Vo We people Series, an exact replica of the statue of Liberty, whose metal frame was designed by Gustave Eiffel a few years before designing the Eiffel Tower.
The rest of the apartment offers more of the same thing. A chamber ceiling has an artistic installation of some 30 world globes, another installation of plaster of multicolored platres imitating the framed work is hung on the wall, a sculpture of cut figurines stands in front of the curtains and behind, again, a stone paulin.
The superposition of contrasts – the interaction of different mediums, a mixture of memphis, the modern and Italian industrial design in the middle of the century, and the mixture of history with the contemporary – creates a textural and visual dimension which appears in all the residences presented in the book.
At the home of Lorraine and Patrick Frey (from the interior design company Pierre Frey), colored, red and fuchsia curtains frame the main room and a preview of two rooms, it reveals more colorful textiles and padding. The central scene is given to a straight piano lined with fresh flowers, small sculptures and a pile of books.
The books are exposed in almost all the characteristics of Laubier Home in Living Paris. At the house of Krzentowski, a row of books, coordinated in color, is located with works of art on a low and wide white shelf; In the dining room of another apartment, a miniature library is behind an oversized table dressed in vases and Jeanneret Pierre chairs. Its rows of shelves (also Jeanneret) are filled with curiosities and books, just like the entrance library and a bedroom with a bedside table stacked with piles of books that turn almost on the bed.
In the house of the gallery owner Marie Victoire Poliakoff, the books are everywhere, including in a room on the side in which we only offer ourselves. Novels, magazines, volumes on design and fashion, there is a wealth of cultural capital in these houses that go beyond beautiful works of art.
The only thing more satisfactory than to be able to maintain what is behind closed doors is to do it at leisure. Laubier's photography invites us to linger and revisit, the spaces in Living Paris; They are designed to be appreciated by others. In doing so, it gives us a useful recall that surrounding us with beautiful things that speak to our own life – whether it is fresh flowers or, yes, books – is a good rule to make the most of our own houses.
“ Paris Living '' by Guillaume de Laubier will be published by Lannoo in June
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