Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Nurture Your Home - 24/7 Inspiration from The Selby

The Selby Is In Your Place, By Todd Selby, available on amazon.com. 

Whether I'm working on one of my own home design projects, helping a friend, or need an injection of beauty and creativity, one of my favorite resources for inspiration is Todd Selby's website, The Selby.  Created in 2008 after Todd began taking photographs of his artistic friends in their homes, his site grew exponentially within months, with upwards of 95,000 unique visitors coming to see what he had posted every day! Upon your visit to his home page, you will be greeted by his dazzling photography of the homes and offices of creative people from all over the world. From artist Robert Longo (one of my all-time favorites), to designer Alexander Wang and author Tom Wolfe, Todd has been invited into dozens of the most interesting living spaces in the world.  In addition to photographing each person's residence, he gives them a short, handwritten questionnaire that serves as a forum to share a little about themselves, and their creative process.


Q & A with illustrator Christoph Niemann and Art Historian Lisa Zeitz, courtesy of theselby.com. 

In 2010, The Selby Is In Your Place was published by Abrams and remains one of my favorite books I have in our library.  With photographs of over 30 homes (including those belonging to Jonathan Adler, Lou Dillion and Christian Louboutin) and Selby's beautiful illustrations of each subject, this is a must for anyone interested in art or interior design. Most recently, he launched The Edible Selby with the New York Times T Magazine in which he travels the globe photographing the most creative people in food, like bakers Chad Robertson & Elizabeth Prueitt of Tartine San Francisco and chef Inaki Aizpitarte of Le Dauphin in Paris.

Chef Inaki Aizpitarte as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 

Illustration of artist Robert Longo by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 

He has collaborated with Nike, Louis Vuitton and Hennessy, had a solo show at Paris's ever-hip boutique Colette and is a frequent contributor to Vogue Paris and Architectural Digest (French Edition).  Probably one of the most interesting things about Todd are the various jobs he held PRIOR to launching The Selby.  He has been a tour guide and translator in Tijuana, a researcher for the California strawberry industry, a Costa Rican cartographer, and an exotic flower wholesaler (just to list a few).  Perhaps it is his fascinating and varied background that has shaped the skillful eye he brings to each home he shoots. Here are a few of my favorite rooms he has captured over the last year. Bookmark his site and you will always have access to his incredible trove of fantastic interiors.


Library of book publisher Angelika Taschen (Berlin), as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 


Home of designer Katie Lockhart and director Darryl Ward (Auckland), photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 


Home of Yasumichi Morita-san, designer (Tokyo), as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 

Sitting room of writer Michael Haney and merchandise director Brooke Cundiff (NYC), as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 

Living room of designer Alexandre Herchcovitch (Sao Paolo), as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 


Playroom in the home of artists Misha Hollenbach and Shauna Toohey (Melbourne), as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 


Home of boutique owner Ben Ospital (San Francisco) as photographed by Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com.

In addition to his talents as a photographer, Todd is also a filmmaker and recently made a short film for Zara's Fall/Winter 2011 collection that follows gallery director Lucy Chadwick.  You can watch it here.  He has also made beautiful short films about sculptor Tom Sachs and performance artist Christine Sun Kim.   A multi-faceted, one-of-a-kind artist like Todd comes along only once in a lifetime and I am so grateful he is a part of mine! Happy viewing and I'll see you on Friday.

Artist and photographer Todd Selby, courtesy of theselby.com. 

4 comments:

tina said...

Another great post. I so loved your Karl Lagerfeld one... Selby is one of my favs. I bought the book in a wonderful shop in Berlin when it first came out. I remember laughing at myself because it's so big and heavy and I could have bought it in London. There was something extra special buying it in Berlin (love the city)... I have probably bought that book as a present 10-15 times. Everyone loved it!

California Chic said...

Thank you so much Tina! I love your story about Berlin and lugging that book all the way home - I can think of many times that I bought big, heavy art books and traveled home with them when I knew I should just wait and order them online. But its so nice to look around your home and be reminded of places you've been and things you've seen - especially with books. I'm thinking a Volume 2 should be in the works by now...!

Theresa / InspirationCOOP said...

I love The Selby. I go to the site for inspiration all the time and it never disappoints. What I really love (as always) is the extra information you provide about Todd Selby. What an incredible journey he's on.

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