Guest Post by Mary Gaudin, photographer

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"The locals call the Unité d'habitation La Maison du Fada - the crazy guy's house. Photos from the early 50s show a huge, stark concrete building floating like a enormous ocean liner in a sea of French bungalows."










The 6th floor.

We had three full days in the apartment. Time enough to discover for ourselves what life might be like living in a modular designed space; in a "machine for living" Le Corbusier style. The apartment was on the 6th floor of the Unité dʼHabitation in Marseille. We had a view out towards the sea from the living room on one side and a view of the city stretching out to the rugged limestone hills of Marseille from the other.

The locals call the Unité dʼhabitation La Maison du Fada - the crazy guyʼs house. Photos from the early 50s show a huge, stark concrete building floating like a enormous ocean liner in a sea of French bungalows.

It must have been a startling sight.
This was postwar public housing.
It was idealistic modernism.

Perhaps it could only have been built with the tenacity and ego of a man like Le Corbusier. If the building was a little didactic, it was also thoughtful and generous. This was an apartment which remarkably for most of the last 50 years had remained virtually untouched by its original owners.

The current architect owner has modernized around these original fixtures, so that Jean Prouvéʼs oak wooden stairs & window frames and the cast aluminium & tiling of Charlotte Perriandʼs kitchen, remain classic features. The kitchen was cabin like and by our modern standards perhaps too pokey. In fact Le Corbusier wanted the kitchen to be like a cockpit : “to have everything within reach, functional & easy to use”. I did like having everything close at hand. I liked the built in shelf behind the sink for soap and scourers. I liked the pull out wooden chopping board, the serving hatch opening the kitchen out onto the dining room and the cubby hole where your morning baguette & paper could be delivered.

I spent a lot of time pottering around in the apartment : reading, thinking, making cups of tea, watching the changing light, taking photos & resisting any suggestions of venturing out. My mathematician husband raided the supply of childrenʼs drawing paper to work on some computations. It was a good sign. He could concentrate in the space. It was stimulating but at the same time relaxing & intimate.

Le Corbusier was very keen on a metaphor, especially a nautical one.
He said that “life in a building is a journey on a liner”.

Our stay felt a little like being at sea, albeit in a very roomy cabin.

Mary Gaudin is a New Zealand photographer living in Montpellier, France. Currently she divides her time between France and London and as much other travelling as she can do. If you're interested in a Life Book or for any other photography please contact her at ... mail@marygaudin.com



read a previous YHBHS interview with Mary Gaudin here....
&
go to l'antipodeuse, her site with many more images..

All text and images courtesy of Mary Gaudin.

YHBHS portrait
of Mary Gaudin

"I like to capture an informal feel in the images
to avoid looking as though they’ve been styled for an interiors magazine."

images from LIFEBOOKS, by Mary Gaudin

Why did you begin the "LIFE BOOK?" What are they, and how many have you done?

Well, it started with looking for a practical way to bring together my photography & interest in interiors. I’d noticed that we record moments by taking pictures of people but rarely of homes, things & living spaces. So a Life Book is more than a record of someones physical space. It’s a collection of vignettes of the things that makes a home, the things that are important & treasured but also the everyday stuff that is used daily. I’m interested in photographing people’s home just as they are; finding small corners and details to photograph. I like to capture an informal feel in the images to avoid looking as though they’ve been styled for an interiors magazine. I don’t include portraits in the books but the odd pet does sneak into the shots. I have done around 20 books mainly in the UK. I’m very excited to be doing my first commission in the US over the summer.

What are the moments you are fascinated by in people's homes?

Each home is different & I enjoy the challenge of framing details & finding ways to photograph peoples spaces with natural light. The houses I most like photographing are the more quirky/less designed ones.

What is a beautiful home to you?

For me a beautiful home is one which is a mixture of styles & not too designed. One which has simple well thought out spaces. Oh, and lots of books.

Other than your life books, what do you enjoy photographing?

I’m always drawn to photographing architecture, especially details of buildings. I’m also a big fan of the everyday snapshot style. I have a growing collection of après meal table shots. Recently I’ve begun using film again & so I’m enjoying experimenting especially with slide film.

Can you talk about your blog, why you began, and where it has taken you?

I began my blog soon after I moved from London to the South of France. Initially it was a way of documenting new places visited but increasingly I’m using it as a more formal photographic record. Less words and more images.

Letting the pictures speak more for themselves.


















for more images and contact info,
please visit Mary Gaudin

please visit here blog here.....









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