Big News from New York City

While it’s always fun to travel, traveling as a photographer tops everything. For the next two weeks, I’m coming at you live from New York City, where commissions, corporate clients, and the PDN PhotoPlus Conference will help me feel like I’m back home…which I am! In New York, I got my start as a professional photographer, and although I returned to my California roots and moved back to San Francisco a few years ago, I divide my time equally between the Big Apple and the Golden State.

Last week, I posed the question: “What the #&%$ does the Novogratz family have to do with Catherine Hall?”

The time has come to share my good news! (I’m talking oh-my-gosh, unbridled excitement.) For 72 hours, I will be staying in the West Village with famed wife-and-husband designers Cortney and Rob Novogratz (along with their seven children, ranging from their youngest infant to their oldest late-adolescent). They live in this apartment, which they created themselves:

The founders of Sixx Design and stars of Bravo’s artsy reality show, 9 by Design, Cortney and Rob have been featured in The New York Times, GQ, Forbes, and more. They’re insanely brilliant interior architects with an enormous brood, and they make their livelihood by moving into decrepit, last-leg homes (kids in tow), transforming them from the ground-up, and selling them for $20 million. It’s this unique concept coupled with their bohemian-luxury style that makes Cortney and Robert so captivating.

Over Halloween weekend, I’m shacking up the Novogratz’, where I will be documenting their lives around-the-clock, along with a few seated portraiture sessions. Creatively, I’m interested in befriending this power-team to learn more about what makes them tick, to spend time in the recently renovated home (I mean, seriously, they’ve included a couch designed by Zaha Hadid–seriously?), and to witness the madness that is a nine-member household. I’m fascinated by the family as a cultural phenomenon and particularly curious about the kids that Cortney and Robert are raising. My photo project is motivated by psychological inquiry, pop history, and a fine-arts sensibility.

Wish me luck in the (so very chic) fray!