For days I've been waiting for enough sun to photograph my little home "office" (really just a corner of the salon, divided from the rest of the room by a bookcase). But the cold, grey winter's gloom persists. Finally, I took photos using only lamplight (the zinc urn/lamp once was part of a weather vane on top of a French chateau) and with the flash (below). The cabinet d' curiositie to the right of the desk is a Napoleon III bookcase, which belonged to a professor at the Sorbonne. His grandson - who prefers modern furniture - sold it to me for a song. The "Louis Louis" chair was a gift from my friend Di Overton.
My new 17" Macbook Pro and 24" display screen. Until late last fall, I was a lifelong PC user (I still have a PC notebook loaded with photos and a netbook for travel, as well). At left is my iPod and speakers. The rest is decidely low-tech, i.e. an Arts & Crafts clock, an Art Nouveau frame accented with silver and opals and featuring a photo of an unknown French soldier; two Napoleon III globes; a 19th-century wooden sewing basket holding stationary and several 18th-century books.
The mercantile drawers containing computer gear and office supplies are 19th-century French. The art at right is by Vanessa Valencia. (At left, washed out by the lamplight, is a watercolour of a woman walking in a storm near the Taos Pueblo). A tall scientific speciman cloche holds 17th-century French documents and a gilt fragment, while a small cloche contains Christine Mason Miller's collage "Your voice matters."
The red desk and bookcase are from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The wireless printer is on top of a small blue-grey chest from a French mercantile. A framed photograph of Afghan children is by Marianne Elliot. The Native American pottery oil painting is 19th-century French. A framed Italian prayer ornament is also 19th-century. Beneath it is a 2008 art piece by Jennifer Valentine. The Habitat bookcase (at left) holds mostly art and photography books featuring the work of Reza Deghati, Steve McCurry, David Alan Harvey, James Nachtwey, Galen Rowell, Sebastiao Salgado, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, William Albert Allard and others whose work I admire.
I'm hoping that next year when we move to Amsterdam, there will be enough space for a real office with a window, rather than a lamplit little corner. Won't you post photos of your own desk or space where you create?
