No two days…

When people ask me about my job as The Times Magazine Interiors Editor I often say that  no two days are the same and this week was a good example. It started with a shoot in north London with photographer Jan Baldwin and her assistant Pete. The location was the home of two architects who went off to work and left us to get on with it, under the supervision of their dog Colin.

Jan and Pete setting up a kitchen shot

When it came to the sitting area we decided we needed a model, but as we were bereft of home owners Colin was pressed in to service. But he was reluctant about media exposure, so Pete had to do some gentle cajoling

Pete coaxing the reluctant model

After several very successful shots, Colin was exhausted and retired to a safe spot behind the footstool for a snooze.

Colin taking a break

On Friday’s shoot with photographer James Balston we had a very hands on couple who not only posed for portraits but also got stuck in when it came to getting the images together. Harry Parr of Bompas & Parr and set designer Cecilia Carey  became part of the team, vacuuming, fruit arranging and moving furniture.

Parr and Carey hard at work

The stuff you don’t see – behind the camera

There was also time on Thursday to call in to the opening of Collect at the Saatchi Gallery and catch up with Freddie Robins whose home we featured in May 4 issue of the magazine. The artwork she was working on in one of the images used in the feature was now finished and on display

Freddie’s ‘Out on a Limb’ show at Collect

I also chatted to Ingrid Tate of Tate & Style, visiting from Orkney to see Freddie’s exhibit. Freddie was a co-founder of the great textile company Tate & Style that Ingrid now runs on her own, and we photographed Ingrid at home on the Scottish island several years ago. But that’s another story and it was another day.

Books and Blooms

On Thursday evening I went to The Photographer’s Gallery for Jane Hilton’s book signing ( the home Jane shares with her husband Nick Lee and their son Johnny featured in the April 27th issue of The Times Magazine). Jane was signing copies of Precious, her book of images taken in the legal brothels of Nevada. It was busy but among the throng I bumped in to Harry Hardie formerly of the Times Mag Picture desk now founder and director of  Here, a company that publishes, exhibits, teaches and supports photography. Also there was Krishna Seth who until recently was Photo Editor at the Telegraph, but with whom I worked a number of years ago when I was Interiors and Fashion editor on the Sunday Express Magazine, so it was a fun reunion.

Jane Hilton signing one of her books at The Photographers Gallery

On Friday it was off to Notting  Hill where the main road is closed for urgent repairs to a large subterranean hole, it was eerily quiet coming out of the tube station, because of the lack of traffic. Walking down the road to a meeting at Michaelis Boyd Architects I had to stop and take in the wonderful view of a street lined with white blossom

Blossom lined street in Notting Hill

I went to talk to Alex Michaelis and Tim Boyd about a house we are going to photograph next week; they had done extensive design work on it, but we also ended up talking about their new dining table and chair project, recently launched in Milan, and a charity scheme in Nepal where they have designed a home for ex Gurkha soldiers. They had just flown in from overseeing the final stages of building, but both seemed as fresh as daises, or even the blossom in the street outside.

Art and Architecture

As well as the usual round of recces I’ve recently managed to get and bit of art-house and architecture under my belt. The art house was an interesting black and white film by Sarah Pucill called Magic Mirror, shown at Tate Modern, about the work of French photographer and writer Claude Cahun. The film was a ‘re-staging of the French Surrealist’s work and the text from her 1930s work Aveux Non Avenus.

Waiting for Sarah Pucill’s film to start at Tate Modern

On a quick trip to Malta I managed to see the work being done on Renzo Pian0′s designs for the gates of the capital city Valletta, the colour of the stone cladding blends perfectly with the adjacent ancient walls and Roman pillars although the look is whole heartedly modern

Valletta re-build underway