Book: Handcrafted Modern by Leslie Williamson
Photographer Leslie Williamson takes us through the doors of an impressive collection of homes in her new book, Handcrafted Modern: At home with mid-century designers.
Jens Risom, Charles and Ray Eames, Russel Wright – most of the big guns of the time are represented – but far from careful studies, Williamson’s photographs show how these figures lived with their own creations, as well as the objects and curiosities they chose to collect, in what is to date one of the most personal and warm explorations of domestic modernism.
Take a peek inside Williamson’s Handcrafted Modern
Williamson set herself strict criteria before embarking on the five-year project. Each creator’s home had to be intact, with the person still living there, or kept as it was in their time, with their personal belongings left in the house. “I tried to film the house as it was when I arrived,” she says. “I would only move objects if they were in the way.” And the San Francisco-based photographer only used natural light, or house lighting, to convey the experience of actually living in the house.
This purity of approach makes the book full of unexpected finds. Dig around the Eames’ California home and you’ll spot voracious collector Ray’s assortment of blue and white china, tribal artifacts, geisha headrests and even hairpins left by his bed. Meanwhile, look inside furniture designer Harry Bertoia’s Pennsylvania barn and you’ll find his extraordinary sound-instrument sculptures and mini recording studio. And posing inside Irving Harper’s New York home, a collection of creatures sculpted from paper, toothpicks, straws and pasta.
Williamson limited his subjects to the United States, taking into account everything from Albert Frey’s floating modernist aire on a rocky outcrop in Palm Springs (pictured above) to Walter Gropius’ historic Bauhaus home in Massachusetts. The informal pages of the books are filled with anecdotes about this very personal journey of discovery, culminating in powerful portraits of the people behind the designs and their evolving aesthetics. “During the filming of this book, all of these designers transcended their status as icons of modernism,” she says. “I now see them more as extraordinary people than design demigods.”