Eastern Influences

摘要

Experience IT early enough in life, and good taste can become second nature. Pieter Estersohn got that leg up earlier than most. The 45-year-old photographer, who contributes frequently to ELLE DECOR, grew up in a Bay Area house studded with furniture by the more discerning talents of mid-century modernism, including Gio Ponti, Hans Wegner, and T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings. But the photographer had more confidence and curiosity than merely to hang on to the collectibles of his youth. "I never really liked California Modern," he says. "I romanticized the East Coast, all things Egyptian, and English manor houses and castles." Youthful stints in London, the Middle East, and Paris and a career that keeps him on the road (65 countries and 35 states at last count) have bred in him an affection for the past and endowed him with an Orientalist's love for the telling detail. At 15, he spent his spare time learning how to repair 15th-and 16th-century rugs and then used the money he earned to buy an 1820 English tester bed.