There are people for whom the images of memory are not just things they have experienced themselves, but also the pictures they have seen. In galleries. In museums. And in magazines.
Pictures that are so close, so clearly remembered, that they feel they were in those spaces. That they experienced them in a very personal way.
Many images by photographer Oberto Gili are in my files, both paper and mental.
"I try not to change anything and not to style," Mr. Gili told me. He has shot the homes of friends and strangers and says neither is better or easier, but "The difference is if they are interesting or not. An uninteresting person will for sure live in a dull house."
He has favorites, as I have favorites (the pool, the flag, the cows), but will he click and tell? "I could name many, but I go down to two - Richard Meier and Isabella Rossellini." I remember them well.
If you are an Oberto Gili fan, you will be thrilled with his new book Oberto Gili, Home Sweet Home: Sumptuous and Bohemian Interiors. Bill was shaking his head and smiling as I kept saying, "Oh, it's so beautiful." All images courtesy of Rizzoli New York and are, of course, by Mr. Gili.Labels: design books
