Ella is a fortunate and youthful senior. In Nancy Baron’s latest photography monograph, Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, she is comfortably sprawled on a white sectional sofa in the spacious, vibrant living room of her 1959 mid-twentieth century modern Alexander home, designed by Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison. This lucky English Shepherd belongs to documentary photographer, Nancy Baron. Ella’s portrait opens Baron’s third monograph, published in 2020 by Schiffer Publishing. The book is a delightfully optimistic collection of pictures––an instant classic and a perfect companion to Baron’s 2014 and 2016 charming depictions of the stylish oasis, The Good Life > Palm Springs and Palm Springs > The Good Life Goes On, both published by Kehrer Verlag.
Ella is followed in Modern Dogs by a panoply of purebreds and rescues, reigning free in their own mid century modern Wexlers, Krisels, Meiselmans, and Kapturs, among other comfortable mod homes, with nary a human in sight. George, an athletic Golden Doodle, is having his daily swim in the turquoise pool under the palms. Abbey, a fetching English Setter and a total showstopper, holds court in her custom pink miniature four poster bed, and my favorite, Steve, the Irish Wolfhound rescue, is reportedly popular around town and has reportedly applied for a Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame.
Growing up in Chicago, Baron was surrounded by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and Mies van der Rohe, amongst other venerated architects. Her appreciation for their design and for cold Chicago winters shaped her love of the Southern California desert.
A trip to Palm Springs in the middle of a dark Chicago winter found her in a paradise that would never stop fascinating her. Ultimately, in 2006, she was able to make this desert oasis her second home.
The so-called modernists of the Palm Springs preservationist community impressed Nancy with their devotion to the design and lifestyle of the mid-twentieth century modern era, and they opened their homes to her. During years of documenting this bright and colorful world she loved how the beloved pets of these colorful, brightly lit homes, with their inside/outside design, would wander into the frame, adding life and warmth. She began photographing them in their homes or cars, putting them in the spotlight in her latest monograph, Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, the title a wink at the Hollywood at Home portraits from the past.
Baron’s prints have been exhibited and published internationally and are held in public and private collections. Her first two monographs, The Good Life > Palm Springs and Palm Springs > The Good Life Goes On, published by Kehrer Verlag, are held in various museum libraries, including MOMA, LACMA, the Getty, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
Born in Chicago, Nancy Baron is now based in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. In her fine art documentary photography, she uses portraits, landscapes, and architectural photographs to record the world nearby with a hopeful bias.
Nancy’s prints have been exhibited in group and solo shows internationally and are held in public and private collections. Her photography has been published in notable magazines and newspapers worldwide, including The New York Times, Madame Figaro, W Magazine, Architectural Digest, The Telegraph Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Fast Times, Mother Jones, and on the Apple, CNN, and BBC websites.
Baron’s two monographs, The Good Life > Palm Springs and Palm Springs > The Good Life Goes On are published by Kehrer Verlag and are held in various museum libraries, including MOMA, LACMA, the Getty, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin.
Nancy’s third monograph, Palm Springs Modern Dogs at Home, published by Schiffer Books, September 2020, is now available.
Palm Spring Modern Dogs at Home
Price: $25.00
Publisher: Schiffer; Reprint edition (September 28, 2020)
Hardcover: 120 pages
Dimensions : 7 x 0.63 x 10 inches
How to purchase the book:
For signed copies.
Contact:
Instagram: @nancybaron_
Ron Beinner is a photography producer/consultant, collaborator, bicyclist, traveler, and friend to photographers. He produced environmental portraits for Vanity Fair magazine in New York for over two decades and now lives in Venice, California
Instagram @runronrun.
image: Brigitte Lacombe/Versailles
