PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES HOUSTON

Fifteen years ago photographer James Houston decided to start all over again. He had established a successful career in Australia, shooting editorials for Vogue Australia and Black and White magazine but he wanted to work in New York. It took a while to break through but when he did, James did it with style - landing Donna Karan and Clinique as clients. Since then he has carved out a niche in beauty photography and celebrity portraiture. More recently he has launched James Houston Design, showcasing a series of his prints in an online gallery. 

Which five words best describe you? Driven, conscious, activist, visionary and creative.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I was modeling in Tokyo and happened to stumble onto photography as a hobby while I was there and I started shooting my friends. When I came back to Australia I decided to work towards an exhibition and publishing a book of my work. This helped get my name out there and from that point I started to work with editorial magazines and advertising clients slowly working my way up to be a leading photographer in Australia. 

I then decided to move to New York which was initially challenging. I worked hard to break into the market and build up my client base internationally. While in New York I discovered my passion for beauty, hair and skin and that became my focus allowing me to become one of the worlds leading beauty photographers working for clients such as L’Oreal Paris, Donna Karan, Hugo Boss and Givenchy, and celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Emma Watson and Jennifer Lopez.

I believe in evolving as an artist and I am now at a point in my career where I am moving into design with photography as the inspiration under the banner of recently launched James Houston Design. We launch our first home product range in the Spring 2015.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? Stay connected and committed to the result you want to achieve in your life not attached to the journey and how that will play out. 

What’s your proudest career achievement? I have created and worked on many community projects utilising my photography to raise millions of dollars for various charities and organisations. Sir Elton John called me a hero at the launch of my Move For Aids launch in Australia when he attended and spoke at the event. 

What’s been your best decision? To move to the US.

Who inspires you? I’m inspired by people who are living their dream and really enjoying their journey. 

What are you passionate about? I’m passionate about expressing myself through my work and capturing and sharing beauty. I’m also passionate about inspiring others to connect with their own potential and dreams.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? I would like to meet and shoot Beyonce, Obama and Buddha.

What dream do you still want to fulfil? To successfully build James Houston Design and my design philosophy brand MindSpaceDesign. The vision of these brands is to share beautiful products with an international audience and inspire people to create a home that connects them to what they want their life to look and feel like. 

What are you reading? The mastery of love by Don Miguel Ruiz.

images courtesy of james houston and james houston design

photographer pia ulin

Photography can still seem a male-dominated domain. And while it's possible to rattle off a long list of accomplished female photographers, it's always satisfying to add another woman to the list who's carving out a formidable reputation for herself. Pia Ulin is a Swedish photographer who studied and spends much of her time in New York. She travels constantly for work, thanks to her client base which includes HM HOME, Ikea and Anthropologie, as well as magazines such as Elle Decoration, Martha Stewart and Condé Nast Traveller. Pia has also published two books - Nesting is the most recent - and completed one documentary film.

Which five words best describe you? Spontaneous, fast, passionate, happy, melancholic.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I studied photography at the International Center of Photography in New York. Then I went back to Stockholm and my work just took off.

What's the best lesson you've learnt along the way? Say yes to everything, and learn as you go along.

What's your proudest career achievement? When Casa Vogue/Italia said they liked my book Nesting.

What's been your best decision? To have children.

Who inspires you? Silence.

What are you passionate about? Finding a home.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? Georgia O'Keeffe

What dream do you still want to fulfill? Move to Los Angeles.

What are you reading? Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh

images courtesy of pia ulin

interior stylist graham moss

Graham Moss, an American who grew up in Australia, has always had an eye for detail. He spent his childhood creating murals on his bedroom wall and building makeshift furniture from his toy building blocks. After a career in the corporate world, Graham accidentally fell into interior styling. It turns out he was a natural. Since then Graham has started his own interior styling business in New York and has worked alongside interiors and lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. Also, his home in Harlem was recently featured in Vogue Living.

Which five words best describe you? Meticulous, empathetic, diverse, progressive, lateral.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? This career started completely by accident. I was working in corporate branding for many years, and used my own living environment as a means of creative expression. After my place was discovered by Vogue Living and various blogs, people just started asking me to help them with their own environments, to the degree that it somehow morphed into a full-time job.

The path that's presented itself has been one of creating residential interiors in the city of New York - the architectural envelope and the decoration of them. Each situation is totally different and I am constantly invigorated and challenged by the unique circumstances of every project.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? To always test limits - those of my clients as well as those of myself. It almost always pays off and makes for a better quality, more exciting and satisfying outcome.

What’s your proudest career achievement? One day out of the blue I was asked to co-host the Martha Stewart radio show - it was surreal, a true honour and a privilege to even be asked. Martha is a real inspiration in terms of her own life achievements. I love how she actually possesses true skill and talent. She is in charge of an empire and yet she still appears to get her hands dirty, literally and figuratively. I'm hoping one of my current projects is going to be a bit of a milestone. It's a beautiful apartment I am working on for a couple with eight children!

What’s been your best decision? To take risks - not just in my work, but in most aspects of life. As long as they're considered and 'educated' risks it's what puts you ahead of the pack I think (if they pay off, of course.)

Who inspires you? I love Kelly Wearstler and I love Jonathan Adler. Not just their style but also what they've achieved with their brands by being themselves and not straying from that. They also seem like fun, genuine people I'd like to know!

What are you passionate about? I'm passionate about keeping things real, keeping things in perspective, seeing things for what they are, staying as down to earth as possible.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? I would love to meet some of modern history's true style icons. Especially the ones who've broken ground successfully, and the ones who've got strong personas with a touch of the eccentric genius about them like Andy Warhol, David LaChappelle, Katherine Hepburn, Picasso, Yves Saint Laurent.

What dream do you still want to fulfil? I still have not quite managed to find a healthy balance between work and relaxation - a few more holidays and a little less work would be a dream come true.

What are you reading? I just finished The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - amazing, uplifting, what a life lesson. I want to read it again! I’m about to embark on The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

images courtesy of graham moss; portrait vogue living (via busy being fabulous)

photographer martyn thompson

Martyn Thompson is a New York-based Australian photographer whose career has spanned more than 25 years. He started out making garments, and ended up photographing them. Soon his photographic work was in high demand and he moved from fashion photography to interiors. He also relocated from Paris to London before basing himself in New York. All the while he has shot campaigns for the likes of Hermes, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co. Martyn has also published several books, including two with Ilse Crawford.

Above are examples of his fine art photography. Tomorrow read about his latest book project, Interiors (Hardie Grant).

Which five words best describe you? A good question for someone else to answer, but anyway: quiet, excitable, honest, industrious, boyish.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I wanted to be a fabric designer. I bought fabric and paint and started doing just that. Then I started to make clothes from the fabrics and began to sell them. I started photographing those clothes and that’s what led to my career as a photographer.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? Trust your instinct.

What’s your proudest career achievement? That my work continues to change and develop.

What’s been your best decision? To let other people help.

Who inspires you? Passionate people: performance artist Taylor Mac, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

What are you passionate about? Many things. On the broadest level "equality” is a big issue for me. I’m passionate about the creative process. And on a completely superficial level, what I wear.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? Brian Eno

What dream do you still want to fulfil? To exhibit more.

What are you reading? Alan Hollinghurst The Stranger’s Child.

images courtesy of martyn thompson

illustrator james gulliver hancock

James Gulliver Hancock is an Australian illustrator who is currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He recently held a solo exhibition there - All the Buildings in New York, which is a side project that he's been working on alongside commissioned illustration work for magazines, book publishers and musicians. Before landing in New York he ran a gallery in Sydney for five years. Now he is represented by The Jacky Winter Group. Clients have included The New York Times, Nylon Magazine, Warner Music and Sony/BMG as well as Sydney Opera House and British Telecom.

James has a nice little story from his pre-school days when he refused to move on from the next activity after painting, "instead devising the most complex image I could think of at the time... a city of houses, including every detail, every person, and every spider web between every house. I still have the drawing".

Which five words best describe you? Messy, whimsical, obsessive, creative, well-dressed.
How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I've been working as an artist and designer for many years, and everything has contributed to my career growth, all the exhibitions, little jobs, friends I've made along the way... but I think my illustration carreer really took off thanks to my Melbourne agent, The Jacky Winter Group.
What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? Be friendly, be a real person to people, then, most likely they'll enjoy collaborating with you and you'll make great things together.
What’s your proudest career achievement? Working with some of my favourite clients that have histories I idolised like Herman Miller. But recently I was super proud to have my first solo show in New York for my projects - All the Buildings in New York.
What’s been your best decision? To make stuff every day. And deciding when I was five to draw whenever possible.
Who inspires you? Most people and most things in the world. I love reading about science and philosophy and seeing where that takes me from thought to creativity. I'm also lucky to be surrounded by some of the world's top illustrators in my studio in the Pencil Factory, in Brooklyn, NY, who inspire me every day.
What are you passionate about? Making things, in any media, every day.
Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? I'd hang out with Hemingway in the south of France fishing in a linen suit whilst drinking wine and soda.
What dream do you still want to fulfill? Publish a monograph on my work
What are you reading? Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It's a history of the destruction of the American Indians. It's a very different story to the Australian invasion, equally as tragic, horrific, and disappointing.

images courtesy of james gulliver hancock

ARTIST JENNA SNYDER-PHILLIPS

Living in a city like New York can give you opportunities like few other places. Jenna Snyder-Phillips had gone down the path of many of her design-hungry contemporaries. She moved from her native Philadelphia to Manhattan to study interior design and architecture at Parsons School of Design. But it was on graduating that an opportunity presented itself that played a great role in changing the course of her career direction. Jenna worked with the art curator at the Gramercy Park Hotel, and got to appreciate the role of hanging large-scale works by the likes of Julian Schnabel. Soon after she found herself painting, and on the encouragement of some friends showed the works to a local interior store. Since then Jenna's art has gained global traction, and is sold through Jonathan Adler stores worldwide.

Which five words best describe you? That's a tough one. But I would have to say the five words that describe me best are:  Creative, inspired, passionate, resourceful and sometimes a bit of a day dreamer.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I think art chooses you. I've always been inclined toward artistic expression in all of its forms. As a child I was obsessed with arts and crafts from drawing to painting and clay to beads. I would work with whatever materials I could get my hands on.

After graduating from Parsons, I started my career working with the Ian Schrager Company on the Gramercy Park Hotel. Assisting the hotel's art curator I learned firsthand how artwork by the likes of Julian Schnabel can completely transform an interior space. When I wasn't busy working I would spend my free time painting on the floor of my Chinatown apartment. My friends were the first to see the art and encouraged me to start showing. I shared the work with a neighborhood interior shop whose aesthetic I really respected and the whole thing grew from there. For me, sharing my art is like sharing a piece of myself. So I feel very lucky that so many amazing interior designers and art collectors have really embraced the art. The rest is history!

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? Don't give up! Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Go after what you want and work hard for it, but know that it also takes time. Success doesn't come overnight.

What’s your proudest career achievement? Turning my art, which started out as a passion and a hobby, into my full-time career.

What’s been your best decision? My best decision has been to value my own opinion above all others. If you do what makes you happy all will work out beautifully in the end.

Who inspires you? So many people inspire me! For interior designers, Jonathan Adler and Kelly Wearstler. In terms of artists, James Nares, Jenny Saville and Tom Ryan are a few favorites. And, of course, my parents!

What are you passionate about? Besides painting and interior design, I'm passionate about travel, shoes and all things Italian, especially pizza.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? I would have loved to have met Frida Kahlo. I find it so inspiring how her life and her art were so deeply connected. Not to mention how she was able to transform such intense pain into such beautiful images.

What dream do you still want to fulfill? It's a dream of mine to one day own my own home and fashion boutique. Although if I stick to painting, showing my art in a museum would be pretty fantastic too. 

What are you reading? Luxury redefined by Ryan Korban and Keith Haring Journals

images courtesy of jenna snyder phillips

INTERIOR DESIGNER STEPHEN ALESCH

After designing film sets for the best part of a decade, Stephen Alesch and his partner in life and work, Robin Standefer, were given an opportunity too good to refuse. The actor and film director Ben Stiller admired their work on Duplex so much that he commissioned the pair to transform his Los Angeles residence, and triple its size. Two years later Stephen and Robin had well and truly retired from film work and were concentrating on the commissions that followed from a range of high-profile clients, including Kate Hudson and Gwyneth Paltrow. Since then their design business, Roman and Williams, which they established in 2002, has gone on to transform some of the leading hotels in New York and beyond. The Ace Hotel, The Standard, The Vicerory and the Highline Hotel are just some of the places that have been given Stephen and Robin's experiential treatment. 

Which five words best describe you? Crazy, silly, odd, spazzy and fussy.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I applied for a job as a draftsman for a solo architect when I was 18. I became his right-hand man. I had no experience except for high school drafting and some construction experience. After 10 years of that, I went to work in the film industry as a set designer, then after 10 years of that started my own design firm with my wife Robin. 

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? Behind every professional, formally educated "expert" is just a normal man or woman with a few tidbits of jargon and knowledgeability - that just about anyone with good common sense could do themselves. In fact, it’s relatively easy to do it even better. 

What’s your proudest career achievement? Designing and completing construction of our 30-storey Viceroy Hotel on 57th Street in New York City. 

What’s been your best decision? Never bothering to learn CAD and continuing to draft by hand. 

Who inspires you? Otto Wagner, Hendrik Berlage, HH Richardson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bertram Goodhue... Dead dudes.

What are you passionate about? Architecture, drafting, plants, waves, suits, science, electricity, construction, mechanics.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? Frank Lloyd Wright.

What dream do you still want to fulfil? Design a university of non-design studies, a beautiful campus of simple buildings, workshops and housing. 

What are you reading? Ben Franklin's biography by H.W. Brands and The look of architecture by Witold Rybczynski.

images courtesy of roman and williams; portrait via scoutmag.com

ILLUSTRATOR KATY SMAIL

In most senses of the word Katy Smail is an illustrator. It is what she studied at college. It is how she applied herself in those first years after graduation, and it is also the mainstay of her output. Clients include NBC Universal, Macy’s, Converse and Ouch Clothing. But a lot has changed over the years too, and the line between Katy’s illustration and fine art work is not always so obvious. While she was born and raised in Scotland, and worked in London, today she lives in Brooklyn, New York. And while Katy continues to work as an illustrator on a range of projects - including magazine editorial, advertising, publishing and apparel design, as well as bespoke stationery - she is also increasingly dedicating time to her fine art practice. Her works are available via Buy Some Damn Art. You can follow Katy's progress via her blog Thistledown Spirits and on Instagram.

Which five words best describe you? Thoughtful, passionate, sensitive, strong-willed, conscientious.

How did you get your career start and what path have you taken since? I was a creative kid, very into singing, reading and putting on plays. I always drew, but only really fell in love with drawing and painting when I was around 16. It became an all-consuming passion when I realised this was something I could pursue, and I went on to Edinburgh College of Art for my degree. I decided to specialise in illustration because I love books, I love the interplay between words and pictures and I wanted to really learn the skill of visual communication. Whilst I love working in traditional forms of illustration, I was also so excited to play with the possibilities of illustration in new contexts. I liked the idea that illustration work could be a smaller and more accessible version of the fine art I was making. After college I worked really hard on unpaid illustration work, collaborating with lots of different people until I had built up a good network, and a portfolio of published work which helped me to find my agent (I am represented by Kate Ryan Inc. in NY). Signing with Kate Ryan was so validating for me. After years of waitressing and drawing for free, it was so encouraging to feel like they saw something worthwhile in me and my work. It definitely felt like a sign that I was on the right path. Nowadays my time is split pretty equally between illustration jobs and my own fine art practice. My day to day working life varies all the time; my projects meander from collaborating with photographers to pattern design to painting flowers and everything in-between. I love the variety.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learnt along the way? That time away from work is as important as time spent working. My natural inclination is to obsess and over work, and it has taken me a long time to learn that walking away from my studio to re-set the brain is essential to produce good work. My work and inspiration becomes very static if I am not taking the time to see new places, read, go to exhibitions, spend time with friends and family. Self care is important when you work for yourself because no one is going to tell you to take the day off because it is the weekend. 

What’s your proudest career achievement? I am really proud to say that being an artist is my job. I'm proud that I have never given up on my dream, despite the struggles. I am also really excited to be in the new volume of Taschen's Illustration Now!

What’s been your best decision? Going to Edinburgh College of Art instead of university. I did well in academic subjects at school and I came very close to studying English or history at university. I am so happy that I listened to my gut and went down the path that I was passionate about, not the obvious option which was safer. I had such a happy time at art school, made so many beautiful friends and it gave me the confidence to pursue my life in art.

Who inspires you? My amazing family and friends. I feel so fortunate to have such a close family, a mum who is my best friend, and to have so many magical friends all over the world. They give me the strength and love to do what I do, and are always there when I have doubts and fears. 

What are you passionate about? My family, my friends, New York City, my art, summer, travel, wildflowers and living a healthy and organic life.

Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? I would like to have one last conversation and a gin and tonic with my grandmother. 

What dream do you still want to fulfil? I would love to travel the world drawing wildflowers, culminating in an exhibition and beautiful book of paintings and drawings.

What are you reading? Far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy and Women who run with the wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

images courtesy of katy smail