Tuesday, April 7, 2020

A Moveable Feast

Mallory Mathison Glenn - Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles

I have seen this several times from magazine photo shoots, but I find it bizarre, if not somewhat humorous. Inanimate objects that move around in photo shoots.

Here we have a large blue and white Chinese porcelain vase next to the front door in the foyer. In the next photo, this very same vase has hopped onto the foyer table and is filled with magnolia branches. Then, to show its versatility, in the last photo, it has meandered over next to the chest in the foyer. So three different shots of the foyer, and the same vase is in three different places. Is the vase taking selfies?

Do they think we don't notice?



Here below is an even wilder example I posted a couple of weeks ago. In this feature in Elle Decor, the shell table is shown in the foyer and then shows up in the adjoining breezeway. I can't help but wonder what the rooms looked like before and after the shoot. Where does that table actually belong? I suspect it is from the foyer below with the green and white wallpaper. In the breezeway in the second photo it looks kind of tight and just stuck in there to me. So in the same article on this home, the table changes rooms. Weird. And the table is probably heavy and delicate to boot.

Do you find this as strange as I do? I think people who buy shelter mags actually notice such things. I do and it seems a bit off to me.

Jonathan Adler - Elle Decor

Jonathan Adler - Elle Decor

I found the table on 1st dibs - it is 20th century and has a travertine top. It was from a West Palm Beach store and this is Liz Lange's house in Palm Beach. Very Tony Duquette.



I bought a pair of seashell encrusted obelisks at Tuesday Morning years ago - see them on top?

Etagere in My Kitchen

I guess my point in all this is that it strikes me when I see things like this that the house has been so staged for the photo shoot and I'd rather see it the way it actually looks. You can't separate out the interior designer's work from the magazines's staging.

Thoughts?

14 comments:

  1. I was always amazed by the lack of table lighting in stages pics. No one needed light! Denise

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  2. And how most lamps they have removed or unplugged and hidden the electrical cords.

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  3. Perhaps this family has 3 matching vases. I have several pairs of matching ginger jars and other matching favorite blue and white pieces. I see nothing wrong with having multiple pieces of something you love in your home.

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    1. I agree, but I doubt very very much that they use three of these vases in the foyer feet away from each other - that would look ridiculous.

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  4. In a photo shoot you try for that one amazing shot that captures the room, so any props are fair game. The trick to not look ridiculous is to only print that one shot, not every try you ever made. If there was a pair to this vase, they would normally be used together, as a pair? Isn't that why you use a pair of things, isn't that why you call them a "pair"? I think it unfortunate that this vase was published too many times.

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    1. Exactly, it made me focus on the obvious staging as opposed to the room.

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    2. That vase has a great PR agent!!

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  5. I love that foyer so much i don't mind the musical chairs with the vase.
    But I don't like the shell table, especially in the green wallpapered room--I think it clashes. As for those white canvas trees (are they from THE CANVAS NURSERY?--they have GREAT stuff)---to die for!! I guess I'm not upset by the staging for photos as you are Beth. After all, all the world's a stage, as Shakespeare said...

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    1. Yes, I got the catalog from The Canvas Nursery and it is fabulous. And they offer designer discounts. I am deciding on which to get for my house. That shell table was probably a fortune too - I couldn't find the price but likely about ten grand! I get staging, just don't be so obvious moving the same piece around for the same article. Silly IMHO.

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  6. It seems to me that I have seen that entry hall several times, published in different sources, and it's so darned gorgeous that I didn't really notice that the furnishings had been moved around. I just noticed the architecture, the scale, and the moldings - just stunning! The furnishings alone are beautiful too. I find the rooms in Elle Decor are a little too busy for my taste. There's too much going on, and all of the elements compete with each other. (Just my personal opinion.) Still, they are all beautiful elements.

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  7. In the first set of photos the first and third, both foyer shots,have the same vases. Since we don't see the other side of the chest in the first shot it perhaps has the vase there too. I admit to not seeing a shadow and cannot tell the depth. However, the second photo shot has a different vase since the design is different and also the shape appears to be a bit fuller.

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    1. Interesting - I don't think there is a second one by the chest and hard to tell on the table.

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  8. I always notice that, too. Sometimes it's as simple as a plant or flower arrangement that seems to come alive and crawl around a house. Too funny. What's most bewildering to me is why anyone would want that monster table in multiple places. One place is bad enough!! :-)

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    1. Agree completely, that table takes over the spaces, and you are so right about the plant/flower arrangement.

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