Hunt House, Malibu, by Craig Ellwood 1957

While it is easy to find fault with Craig Ellwood the person, it’s hard to dispute his place in Southern California as a talented and influential designer from the 50’s thru the 70’s.

I’ve experienced Ellwood buildings firsthand starting with Art Center, where I was a student and have now taught one day a week for 40 years. I’ve been able to tour numerous Ellwood homes including the one he designed  in 1965 for Don Kubly, prior to Kubly becoming the President of Art Center.

Recently I had the opportunity to spend time at the 1957 Hunt House in Malibu thanks to Peter Blake who was using this home as a venue to highlight the artists his Laguna Beach gallery represents.

The Hunt house was meticulously restored by owner Diane Bald with a team which included James Tyler, who worked in the Ellwood office.

I had seen plans and vintage photos of this house along with is older sibling, the Pierson House (1955)  which is just down the street—but was not prepared for the drama of experiencing the Hunt House in person.

Kudos to Diane Bald who had the tenacity and perseverance to make sure this iconic home will still be around for several more generations to experience and enjoy.

Warner Music Group's LA Headquarters in former Ford Model T factory

The Los Angeles AIA chapter hosts incredible tours which I attend whenever I can. It is such a great opportunity to get insight into the design process. 

Last nights was Warner Music Groups LA headquarters located in the arts district of LA in a building designed by John Parkinson and George Bernstrom in 1912 as a Ford Model T assembly plant. 

The tour was led by Rocky Rockefeller, AIA, Founder and Senior Partner of Rockefeller Kampel Architects. They led the complete historic restoration and modernization of the buildings and were architect of record for the Warner Music Group build-out. Rockwell Group designed the interiors.

I’d consider these photos similar to what I do when I walk a space, prior to preparing an estimate—no styling, lighting or detailing was done—but I found them cool and wanted to share.

Louis Vuitton X

The Louis Vuitton X exhibit at 468 N. Rodeo in Beverly Hills is a must see—it’s here until September.  My original interest in photography was photojournalism—so I was able to incorporate this with my passion and career of photographing architecture when I photographed visitors interacting with the space.

K1 Investment Management

I recently photographed K1, a private equity investment firm in Manhattan Beach. This unique space, designed by Aref & Associates, opened to terraces and balconies on each floor. I used multiple exposure techniques to both freeze the water feature and maintain noise-free detail in the entire image.

Bauhaus Beginnings at The Getty

Just saw the Bauhaus Beginnings exhibit at the Getty.  I was struck with the similarity of their curriculum with the foundation design classes I had at Art Center— particularly Mary Vartikian’s Design 1.

I don’t think I appreciated all the hours of painting gouache color swatches and doing color studies at the time—but realize that I use this knowledge every day in photographing interiors.

Light can be Magical

Light can be magical. It defines shape, gives texture, and creates dimension in a photograph.

Prior to photographing a project, I make sure to understand the site orientation and use an app to determine where the sun will be at different times of the day. But I also keep an eye out for sunlight which surprises me. While photographing the home designed by artist Lawrence Dreiband, I was delighted to see light dancing down a curved stairway—and was prepared to capture the moment.

The exterior at dusk is an example of timing as well. Anticipating what areas will need to be lit and waiting for optimum balance between inside and out.

Digital Capture has changed the way I light spaces

I add lights to a space in order to create dimension, texture, or detail on elements in the room. When shooting film it was critical to place a light where it was both effective and invisible to the camera.

Shooting digital has allowed me to place a light wherever I need it and then remove the actual fixture in photoshop. I shoot multiple frames with and without the additional lighting and combine only the important part of each frame in one final image.

The VER camera prep facility designed by Janice Stevenor Dale Associates presented the challenge of a large open space in a bow truss building.  Seating in the foreground needed to be illuminated for form and texture, the rear wall needed detail in order to give the space dimension and the graphic numbers which indicated each work area needed a consistent brightness.

I was able to make this imager by positioning each light as needed, despite being in “the shot”, taking a number of frames, compositing the image and removing the lighting equipment in post.

Art Center Alumni Center

Last night was the open house for The Bruce Heavin & Lynda Weinman Alumni Center at Art Centers South Campus, 1111 S. Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena. The video wall which is an interactive portfolio of alumni work Is fantastic.