In the December 2006 "Art issue" of Vanity Fair, Tobias Meyer posed this question: Why is it that a Rothko and a Park Avenue apartment are almost always priced the same? Now a great apartment in New York is $30 million, and now a great Rothko is also $30 million.
Meyer's point was about art as a pragmatic financial investment, one that the rich depend on to make them richer over time as solidly as real
estate does.
New Yorkers hold onto their living space for dear life, building nests like birds and defending them like bears. Yet after libidinously personalizing their walls, windows and beds, they seem almost always to be at work or on the town, spending precious little time at home. It is this curious tension -- the deep emotional and aesthetic attachment to a place occupied minimally -- that is worth photographing. I have begun a series of environmental portraits catching glimpses of this state of affairs: single images of New Yorkers in their abodes.
The project has just recently begun, so I will be updating it with the
most regularity.
