A Photographer's Home

I hope you don't think this is the online equivalent of being a peeping Tom, but I thought this was interesting...and note that this link might not last for long.

The other day, for obscure reasons, I was searching "Île-de-France," the north-central region of France in which Paris lies—searching, as I often do, visually, through the images tab—and I happened across an unusual real estate listing. It caught my eye because the house seemed to be pictured as it was lived in, as opposed to having been sanitized and leached of personality for the listing photos. Then I saw this—

The large prints on the wall (which I have to admit I didn't recognize—I should have recognized the lower one, because I've seen it before) were the first indication that this was a photographer's home, but the light on its stand, the copy of Klein Retrospective on the bookshelf, and, especially, the proof-prints taped to the back of the door, were the confirmation. As I clicked through to other pictures, it dawned: Whoa, this is Peter Lindbergh's house.

I didn't know he had died, or if I did I didn't remember (I can't keep everybody in my head any more like I used to). But a quick side-trip to Google revealed he left us on September 3rd, 2019.

If you don't know the name, Peter, who was born in Germany and lived in France, was a major fashion photographer, one who had a strong affinity for black-and-white and who is credited with ushering in the era, and the concept, of the supermodel. Here's his Foundation, and here's a link to a book that's a good introduction.

Photographer Peter Lindbergh in 2015

I hope you don't think it's creepy of me to clue you to virtually peek into the home he left behind. I thought it more like a unique opportunity to celebrate who he was—a creative powerhouse with distinctive taste and strong feelings. Rest in peace.

Here's the listing from Sotheby's Realty.

Mike
(Portrait from fanzineredwiki, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Book of interest this week:

PhotoWork: Forty Photographers on Process and Practice, Edited by Sasha Wolf
(clicking on the link above takes you to Amazon)

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Dogman: "My favorite of the fashion photographers. I discovered his work late but made up for it by diving in deep and coming out feeling fulfilled. Beautiful B&W."

JOHN B GILLOOLY: "This is such an amazing find. He is my favorite of the fashion photographers and it is such a treat to see how he chose to display his work in his house. And TOP has me on a photography book path that is leading to my house being filled with large books like his! Thanks for this post!"

Urs Willi: "For me, Lindberg's masterpiece are his 'portraits' of some of Alberto Giacometti's bronze figures. They were on display in a Giacometti exhibition some years ago here in Zurich (Switzerland). Truly marvelous. There is a print volume, but I haven't seen it."

Rob Campbell: "The not knowing of Lindbergh's demise is not of itself surprising.

"Lindbergh and many other people of his ilk are famous within their universe as well as within the wannabe one too. However, there has always been a wide gap between the genres and they don't always overlap very much. For example: I've been in the business all my working life up to retirement, and I was in it before Peter became what he became. I watched some of his early stuff in the fashion bibles and liked some and disliked some. He was, to me, a mixed bag of great and horrible. Yet, I know and care even less about some of the apparently wonderful so-called art photographers some revere; you see the point?

"Later on, much later on, I began really to like what he was doing, though not always the women he chose to carry his dreams. For anyone not familiar with his work, the best way is to watch some of the 'making of' vids that abound on the Internet; a major one is of the shooting of his Pirelli Calendar (another case of a thing famous amongst some photographic groups but almost unknown to others), where he uses older actresses as well as some younger women. The videos, often, strike me as being better than the published photographic stills, but that could be because of motion and the build-up of a sequence to a climax that model photographers understand very well, but which can't be experienced from a single shot, however great that one may be.

"The best video interview that I can remember with him is on Nick Knight's Showstudio channel. I'm writing this on an iPad which is always a race with losing contact with TOP due to timing out, whatever that may be, so I won't risk losing this connection in order to provide a link!"

Comments

[Andrew Molitor]

Huh. Of course, I took a shot at the photos before the reveal and thought "well, not sure I recognize the photos themselves, but the style is Lee Miller."

[James Weekes]

Oh dear, the light, the windows. Who could get work done at that desk, with that view? The stacks of prints on the coffee table. And that gorgeous French light. I hope it gave him a lifetime of pleasure.

[Michael O’Donoghue]

That flat is valued at €17 million. Fashion seems to have paid him well.

[Ugo Bessi]

I wonder whether the Calder mobiles are included...

[MikeR]

I like the industrial bookshelves. Image #6 on Sotheby's gets me - a realtor listing focused on an emerald door knob!

[Stan B.]

Exactly why I've sought to donate my photobook collection to a worthy organization, while I still can. Fortunately, I was able to find one- the Bronx Documentary Center.

[Jnny]

I want that machinery picture over the door.

[JimH]

These auction houses know how to market high end stuff. Check out the pile on books on the table in photo #11 - a stack of Lindberg's books. And only 17M Euros for the place!
That reminded me of an email I received in 2009 from Christies. They were selling a watch that belonged to Briggs Cunningham, famous for both his racing cars and America's cup endeavors. The watch was a Patek Philippe from 1951 of extreme rarity. They ended up using 6 photos for their catalog taken by Howard Wolery, my photo/art teacher in high school. I had been charged with conserving and eventually donating his collection of photos as he fell victim to Parkinsons. The catalog was a work of art itself. And the watch? It sold for almost $4Million to the makers of the watch and now resides in their museum.
Here is one of the photos they used - BC and his Bentley.

Here is a story about Briggs Cunningham and his cars and watches. The watch is "Reference 1526" https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-incredible-watches-and-cars-of-briggs-cunningham

Aside: Christies paid us several grand to use the photos which I donated to the Watkins Glen Racing Library who also got all of Howard's photos.

Michael, the Watkins Glen Library is your neighbor - you should visit them!

[Lynn]

Browsing the photos of another luxury Paris property on that site - listed for 80,000,000 euro - I came across some large Horst P Horst prints on the walls. Who says the 1% don't have taste?

[Luke]

Have you forgotten your post on Lindbergh after he died?

(just kidding - I don't remember it either)