Instagram Fan

Two of my favorite New York icons: the Empire State Building from inside the New York Public Library
As you probably can tell from the blog, I like to take pictures of New York City or wherever I happen to be. Visitors seem to enjoy the photographs on the blog, as well as the stories. Kind of recently, I signed up for Instagram, the photo sharing app, and these are some photos from my Instagram account.
Feeling fallish with flowers and candles –

City Hall Park with the Manhattan Municipal Building beyond –

A walk in the woods in Connecticut – 

The elegant Audubon Center in Prospect Park in Brooklyn –

A trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art found me looking at a Sargent painting in the American Wing –

If you like the blog, you might like to follow me on Instagram! Search for me at bartboehlert. And let's connect on Facebook too. As always, thank you for visiting the blog dear readers.

The Personal Style of Oberto Gili

Just in time for the holidays came a party last week for photographer Oberto Gili's new book Home Sweet Home, published by Rizzoli. I hadn't met Oberto Gili before but was familiar with his evocative interiors photography published in magazines including the sadly now defunct Vogue Living. This book is subtitled Sumptuous and Bohemian Interiors, and it celebrates Gili's personal take on style. He writes in the book, "Decor serves as an expression of personality, fantasy, personal taste, culture and history." So the interiors photographed here are not designer showcases but instead signature homes created by people with great style.

Speaking of. At the front door of the party I ran into my friend Mary Randolph Carter. The party, held at the gallery of antiques dealer Liz O'Brien, was warm and welcoming on a cold and rainy night. Carter and I became friends when I worked at Polo Ralph Lauren and she was in charge of advertising there. Now she works on Ralph Lauren advertising, books and collections, and has written several books herself, including the recent A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life, also published by Rizzoli. Carter's country-in-the-city approach to style has had a big influence on me.

Her apartment on the Upper East Side is photographed in Oberto Gili's book. Carter's mix of art, antiques, comfortable furniture, and books illustrates a wonderful way to live. (Click on photos to enlarge; photos courtesy of Rizzoli)

I had the pleasure of meeting Oberto Gili at the party and I asked him more about his book of interior photographs. He said, "The interiors are all quicky, intellectual, romantic." "Decoration is like fashion," he continued. "You can copy a fashion picture or you can mix and create your own style. In the same way you can hire a decorator and you will have a very pretty room but it is never yours. You want to feel a love of your place. Then it's a great success. Otherwise it's just showing off."
Here is the romantic, simple bedroom of Alvaro Bravo in Marrakech.

The library of Laura di Collobiano and Moreno Petrini in Tuscany.

The last section of the book is devoted to Gili's own home in Piedmont, Italy. This cozy room has a mix of art and antiques and textiles, and a blazing fire. I love the industrial metal hanging lamp shades.

Style continues outdoors into the garden.

These are timeless settings that don't go out of fashion. This book inspires the reader to mix all different kinds of things together that he or she loves, and it attests to the power of the individual to create something personal and unique.

Dreams in the City

BB with artist Lulu de Kwiatkowski

Last week we were invited on one night to two artists' openings here in New York City. We were just back from a trip to Florida so the cold rainy weather was a bit of shock, but never mind. First stop was 1stdibs. You may remember my visit to the new 1stibs showroom at the New York Design Center on Lexington Avenue which features more than fifty antique dealers. That space also includes a gallery where now on display through April 15 is an exhibition of the work of photographer Greg Lotus which was curated by Charles Churchward. 1stdibs founder Michael Bruno hosted the opening along with model Molly Sims. “I chose to present Greg Lotus’s work as our first photography exhibition because it is thought-provoking, sensual and graphic,” Michael told me.

Dividing his time between New York City and Miami, Greg Lotus shoots for a range of top flight magazines and advertisers, most notably Italian Vogue. Cinematic and surreal, his work presents his own polished, personal dreams. Whether it's a woman walking a giraffe

or striking shadows on a nude,

the images evoke a glamorous world of fantasy and imagination.
Your correspondent with photographer Greg Lotus –


Then it was on to dreams of another sort downtown at the Clic Gallery on Centre Street in Soho where Lulu de Kwiatkowski is exhibiting her collages now through May 8. Flowers, birds, lollipops, beach umbrellas and more make up the whimsical visions of the artist.


Two years ago Lulu published a book of her work, and she is also a successful textile designer with a good blog. Lulu is the daughter of Henryk de Kwiatkowski who famously was imprisoned and escaped from a Nazi Siberian labor camp, made a fortune in New York as an aeronautics financier, and became a world class breeder of thoroughbred horses. His wife, Lulu's mother, Lynne de Kwiatowksi Russo, encouraged her daughter's artwork and introduced him to horses and the world of breeding. His second wife, Barbara Allen, the model and Andy Warhol confidante, is Lulu's stepmother.

Lulu told me she's been with her husband, whom she met in Paris when she was 21, for nineteen years. They have twin sons, and she said she just had another baby son exactly three months ago. The family now lives in L.A.
Talking with Lulu –

"The collages are about family, life, death, travel," said Lulu. "There are even love letters in some."

Many people hold an idealized vision of their childhood in their head, and Lulu has created hers through collage. "They are a visual autobiography of my life," she said.

The work is colorful, bright, sparkling, warm, like Lulu herself.

I Am a Camera...

(click photos to enlarge)
...and my camera is broken. My Canon PowerShot is broken AGAIN! It is not even two years old and this is the second time that the lense has gotten stuck out in the extended position. On Saint Patrick's Day I was at the Irish pub taking some jolly pictures of the bagpipers when the lense got stuck out and wouldn't retract. A year ago when the same thing happened Canon fixed it at no cost. This year they said the warranty was over and they would charge me to fix it. I sent it in with a letter asking them not to charge me since it is not even two years old and this is the second time it has broken. We'll see what they say.
In the meantime I'm missing the digital camera, it's become like an extension of my right hand. I was at the Farmer's Market today and saw the most beautiful pink tulips in full bloom, but couldn't get a picture of it.
For now, let's go to the Bart Boehlert Archives for some comfort. Above is a photo of yellow roses which cheered the living room during the recent four-day rain. Below are pink roses which we got for one of the snow storm weekends.

And a single white tulip bows in the spot light.

Let's see what happens with the camera. I might have to buy a new one. But one doesn't want to buy a new digital every two years, does one?

A Trip to the I.C.P.

Photograph from The New York Times
On Saturday morning I thought, "I want to see some Beautiful Things today," so after my yoga class at the Chelsea Piers, TD met me uptown at the International Center for Photography where several fashion photography exhibitions are currently mounted.

On the street level you walk into "Weird Beauty," a show of avant garde fashion magazine stories from publications like Vogue Paris, V, and Numero Homme. The fashion photography stories are mounted from the floor to the ceiling for a graphic exhibition. The creativity on display is very inspiring. It's fun to see what you like, and what you don't like. There were a lot of cool looking kids at this show; it was kind of a scene. I think anyone who works in the fashion business would enjoy viewing it.

I was particularly taken by a fashion spread from Vogue Italia by a photographer, new to me, named Tim Walker. It's a beautiful story -- pale pastel colors, very Romantic, very imaginative, really a dream.

Turns out he is British, and I found a podcast interview with him that you can listen to here; ain't the internet neat?

In the next room is an exhibition called "This Is Not a Fashion Photograph," which is made up of pictures from the Center's permanent collection which feature clothes and style. This joyful dance reminded me, in a way, of Barack and Michelle at the Inauguration Balls. Who would ever think that that would come to mind? I love it.


Downstairs is a big exhibition of photos by the great Edward Steichen. The show is composed of pictures he took for Vogue and Vanity Fair from 1923-1937. Love Steichen. I have a great big book of Steichen photographs and his widow signed it for me. And guess which picture is in this show? The one I wrote about here on January 10th. Steichen ushered in the modern age of photography with simple, graphic pictures. There is not a lot of frou frou, like you see in the work of Cecil Beaton. Still, Steichen's pictures evoke a poetic past. These classic black and white photos offer a clean, quiet contrast to the raucous, colorful conversation upstairs.

Here is Steichen at work:


Steichen's picture of Gary Cooper from 1933. Was there ever a more handsome movie star?


Afterwards we were parched so TD and I went to have a drink in the lobby of the Algonguin Hotel on West 44th Street. The Algonguin, of course, was the home away from home for many writers in the Twenties, and the location of the Dorothy Parker's renowned Round Table. It was a freezing cold night and the lobby was warm and cozy -- big soft chairs, dimly light wall sconces, Frank Sinatra crooning -- a pleasant place to be at cocktail hour.

I love a good hotel lobby bar, with travelers from all over passing through and having a drink before moving on. It reminded me a little of the Hotel Costes in Paris, where we alighted in October, and the Bowery Hotel, downtown.

Then TD and I went home and had a steak. We watched on channel 13 Auntie Mame starring Rosalind Russell from 1958.

Such a fun movie. The eccentric Mame Dennis instills in her nephew Patrick an appreciation for charm, culture, beauty, travel, and open-mindedness. "Live! Live! Live!" she exclaims, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death."