Tom Stuart-Smith

Alice Rawsthorn

François Halard

Vincent Van Duysen

Rose Uniacke

Rose Uniacke at Home

Marie-France Boyer

A look at the French queen's private rooms and buildings at Rambouillet, Versailles, and Fontainbleau.

The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette

Luigi Ghirri

Laura Serani

Laura Gasparini

A visit in poetic images of the home and studio of the iconic Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri.

Casa Ghirri

In 2015, François Halard (b. 1961, French) visited late Saul Leiter?s almost empty apartment in the East Village, two years after his passing, in 2013. He took photographs of the decrepit walls, the empty closet, and of what Saul Leiter had left behind. Saul Leiter (1923?2013) was an American painter and photographer whose work was deeply connected to the East Village, the neighborhood he lived in for over fifty five years. His sometimes abstract, always soulful, photography constitutes a record of street scenes in both black & white and color. After the release of a first book in 2006, fifty years after he started working, Leiter has been considered a pioneer in color photography, even if he would have resented the use of the word; he just happened to have his camera with him, never particularly planning to take photographs as he explained in the 2011 documentary In No Great Hurry:? I don?t know if I?m going to get what I?m going to get ±. François Halard somehow manages to catch the spirit of Saul Leiter, turning the pages you feel he might appear in the next spread. Or at least his cat will. But the space remains beautifully empty. Except for the bodies and people present in the photographs he left behind which François Halard photographed as part of the interior. This might be the most surprising element yet; bodies and people appearing in François Halard?s photography, most of the time strictly uninhabited. They are Halard?s homage to Saul Leiter.

Saul Leiter

"Evocative photography and a wealth of detail make the book a visual treat."Interior Design Marie Antoinette, whose marriage at fifteen made her queen of France before she was twenty, died under the blade of the guillotine in 1793. She has been romanticized as the martyred queen, admired as the personification of eighteenth-century French royal style, and vilified as the Austrian whose frivolous extravagance and foreign sympathies fired the French Revolution. This book turns aside from the official portraits and great historical events to rediscover the private places and objects that reflect Marie Antoinette's personality and reveal her more directly to our modern gaze. Beautifully photographed by Francois Halard, the rooms and buildings she inhabited are shown here in fascinating detail, from the distinctive fabrics and furnishings to the queen's favorite objectsan amber curiosity, a Chinese lacquer gift from her mother, a porcelain bowl. 123 illustrations, 108 in color.

This extravagant volume is the magnum opus of today’s most celebrated interiors photographer. One of François Halard’s first assignments, to photograph Yves Saint Laurent’s legendary Paris apartment when he was in his early twenties, cemented his reputation as one of the most original eyes of our era. His unique photographic sensibility—old-world elegant and bohemian, accessible and personal—is instantly recognizable. Thirty years later, Halard still captures our imagination with his breathtaking photographs. Included in this highly anticipated volume are Halard’s images of the glorious homes of the most important tastemakers, artists, and designers of the twentieth century: Axel Vervoordt, Roger Vivier, Richard Avedon, the Duchess of Devonshire, Julian Schnabel, Schiaparelli, Carlo Mollino, Balthus, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and many more, including Halard’s own homes in New York, Paris, and Arles. Photographed in his inimitable "grand manner," often for Vogue, this book also shows for the first time the more intimate "house portraits" that Halard would photograph for himself, where his personal vision shines through. François Halard will be a coveted, indispensable resource for all lovers of interior style and a master class in visual education.

François Halard

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