Paris Living Rooms

Book excerpt: Photographer Dominique Nabokov has documented the living rooms of well-known Parisians--artists, writers, designers, intellectuals and the occasional celebrity. The rooms vary widely from one another in terms of formality and decor, but they are all equalized under the gaze of Nabokov's camera. Each room is shot simply as it happened to appear on that particular day, without any people. Using discontinued Polaroid Colorgraph type 691 film (which provides a full-color transparency in four minutes), Nabokov does not use special lighting or allow the rooms to be rearranged or touched by a stylist. The result is a series of fascinatingly deadpan photos that puts an ironic slant on the celebrity interior genre. These peeks into the living rooms of celebrated Parisians will provide hours of voyeuristic pleasure. The book includes more than seventy living rooms of such diverse Parisians as Jean-Paul Goude, Andree Putman, Christian Liaigre, Gerard Depardieu, Jeanne Moreau, Carine Roitfeld, Loulou de la Falaise and Jacques Grange, to name a few.