Paris-based photographer Constance Meyer makes photographic patchwork collages of people's interiors that they hang on the walls like family snapshots immortalizing a decorative moment in time. Making a Flickr set of your interior is nothing new, but it seems a bit odd to line the walls of your place with photos of your own place, doesn't it? "It is very narcissistic," says Meyer, who also does photo collages of life events, boutiques, movie sets and brasseries. "But it really has quite an impact on people to see their interiors arranged in their best light like that."...
Meyer comes by for a couple of hours, shoots what catches her eye (with any special requests taken into consideration) and arranges the photos into a collage of at least 50 photos which is then printed on high quality paper to any size and mounted on a backing that allows it to be hung without a frame. Last month, French Elle Décoration liked the idea so much that they suggested a Meyer-inspired DIY strategy, but it seems that not everyone considers themselves a photographer, even in our DIY digital age. "A lot of people have been calling," Meyer says.
- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. She can be reached at kristinh @ apartmenttherapy . com
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Comments (7)
it really does seem narcissistic. but i think it would be nice to have on the occasion of moving. especially for those of us who bounce from apartment to apartment every couple of years. i can see a string of collages along a hallway in chronological order. nice little reminders of those places you put your all into decorating for the handful of months you were there.
I agree that it seems like something that would be nice as a keepsake, and was surprised to hear that most of Constance's clients are people wanting to photograph their current homes for display. But I guess today's narcissistic collage is tomorrow's souvenir, like the photo of the house my great-grandmother was born in that now hangs on my grandmother's wall.
People don't often think to take pictures of their dwellings. Now that I'm older, I wish I had more pictures of my childhood home, my dorm room at college, my first apartment, etc.
I don't see anything narcissistic about it. It's about seeing the day to day things around you in a new way. To me, that's what art is fundamentally about!
Also, it frankly seems far less narcissistic than posting pictures of your apartment on flicker, which is about showing them off to the world, and hoping people admire them. It seems to me that this is a much quirkier personal view of your stuff.
I think these would be more interesting if the images were grouped by color so that the collage had an ombre appearance. And 6 x 7 columns/rows is plenty -- the larger collages are overwhelming, just like clutter! They are no longer a curated collection of images; it's just a hodge podge.
I love the idea of having pictures for reference. I have pictures on my computer of my apt (which I don't live in as yet) - when I'm feeling lonely - I'll look at them - or I rearrange things on the image, etc. but to have this on the wall? not so much. Just another thing that will blend into the background eventually.