Strange Closets

Earlier this year I met Janet, a very talented interior designer who lives in a massive, gorgeous apartment in a vintage Logan Square 3-Flat. After I finished shooting Janet’s place, she introduced me to her upstairs neighbor Judie, a freelance photo stylist, and it wasn’t too long before I returned to photograph her equally amazing [...]

Happy Thanksgiving folks. I’ll be spending the day with Mom’s side of the family in the house where I grew up. If history is any judge, after dinner, half the family will clean up while the XY half will nap wherever they happen to find a spot in front of the living room TV.  I’ll most [...]

A few months ago, I was chatting with my neighbor, Judy, who is sort of a neighborhood legend, known for her involvement with the community and the local church (not to mention the raucous back porch card parties she throws on warm summer evenings). For decades, Judy has watched neighbors come and go, so she’s [...]

Few things are more eco-friendly than recycling, which is something that vintage enthusiasts have been exclaiming since the first “green” products began hitting the market several years ago. This year, the Museum of Science and Industry acknowledged this fact by selecting Scout owner Larry Vodak to curate version 3.0. of their Smart Home, which I [...]

In the four-bedroom Lakeview apartment Barri Leiner Grant shares with her husband and two daughters, seashells, mattress ticking and weathered antiques commingle with crystal, velvet and silver to create a handsomer, more dapper beach aesthetic that reflects both her New Jersey roots and her professional experience as a photo stylist, entrepreneur and author of several [...]

Top photo: The dining room in my Edgewater Glen apartment. Bottom photo: The family room in my friend JB’s Highland Park home, which I’ve photographed twice, the first time a couple of years ago for a Strange Closets Open House and the second time earlier this year for the North Shore magazine Make It Better. ↓ [...]

It was only after I’d finished photographing Janet Friedman’s brilliant Logan Square four-bedroom home that I realized that what felt like an hour had actually taken three. Artists and athletes often speak of a state of intense concentration when time seems to stand still, and I often experience the phenomenon when shooting places like Janet’s, [...]