That childhood feeling of giddy Christmas morning glee is not easily replicated in the world of adults. These days, my ‘neath-the-tree goodies are of a decidedly more responsible sort: socks, books, and cold hard cash. The closest I come to recapturing that “did-I-get-the-Barbie-ice-cream-shoppe?!” anticipation comes in the form of long-lost rolls of film packed with good times and fabulous long-forgotten moments. Behold! Chinatown dudes! Lonely Red Hook chair! Ravenous twin goats! What more could I ask for?

Glenmere Mansion, whose photos I posted here in May and are now in the July issue of Robb Report, is one of few properties that has really stuck with me over time. If there’s one thing I love about a resort, it’s the feeling that each space is unique and has something special to offer. Glenmere accomplishes that in spades. The property also won me over with 24/7 snacking stations (there’s always room for scones!), a gorgeous library stocked with art books ranging from the Impressionist greats to Jeff Koons, and bottomless brunch Bellinis using—and this is important!—real peach purée. So, apparently, the way to my heart is no secret: endless proportions of food, booze, and art!

When I showed up at this penthouse on West 72nd Street across from my favorite corner of Riverside Park, I thought, “Oh, that’s a nice terrace.” Little did I know that I was standing on one of four expansive terraces including a rooftop putting green. Designed by Martha Stack, the pied-à-terre had a rare (for space-strapped Manhattan, at least) appreciation for the outdoors, my favorite of which is captured by the mounted four-foot bluefish that presides over the sexy blue office. more»

We turned my final submission for the Kinne Research Fellowship at Columbia into a big, beautiful book, published by Blurb. Jackie edited the original entries for an easier, more photo-focused flow (or because she thinks I talk too much). The electronic book can be viewed/downloaded on issuu, and if you want the unbridled, even-more-enthusiastic version, browse the original posts here. Also, definitely check out the interactive map that outlines the entire six-week trip after the jump. Now we just have to complete the second session in Mexico City. Fingers crossed we carve the time out this summer! more»

John and I rented a convertible and drove up to Vermont to check out the Chalet cottage at Twin Farms. Never mind the fact that it rained, sleeted, and flurried during various times throughout our trip (no wonder Alamo offered us a car upgrade at such a generous price!), we still had a lovely time at the world-class resort that was originally the vacation estate of literary legend Sinclair Lewis.  I will admit that I’m not a huge fan of not being able to chose my own meals but the gorgeous Vermont countryside—even through dense fog—simply cannot be topped. John claims his favorite state is now Vermont (no doubt, cheese and maple syrup tastings had an influence on this declaration). I’m holding true to Texas but, damn, those verdant rolling hills do come close. more»

John and I took a mini-holiday last month to check out a new resort upstate called Glenmere Mansion. The owners discovered a rundown Tuscan-style mansion in Chester, NY, about four years ago and have now turned it into a classical-meets-modern resort, complete with a Miami-inspired pool, authentic Italianate cortile, and an enviable display of their own art collections (hello, Rauschenberg lithograph!). Admittedly, we brought the average guest age down by about 20 years. (At one point we felt so out of place that John likened us to Mac and Dee in the country-club-Vicodin-selling episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.) more»

I only spent a few hours at Maia Luxury Resort & Spa—glorious though they were. During my site inspection, I was taken to the villa at the very top of the granite peak on which the resort is located. It was rather amusing as my guide and I sat on the edge of the outdoor bathtub, silently watching the sun ebb its way toward the horizon for a good three minutes. He didn’t seem to think it was anything out of the ordinary though so I can only deduce that two strangers in a tub is a pretty common occurrence over there. more»

The first stop on my trip was Desroches Island. It was, in many ways, my favorite stop. There was the plentitude of water sports (snorkeling with sharks! I caught my first fish! hydrobike?!), the four-bedroom villa of which there weren’t enough nights to test each bed, and—the real kicker—the willingness of the staff to go running with me at 6 AM. Now that’s dedication to your guests. And damn, we don’t have that kind of humidity in New York, so I must say that they kind of kicked my ass too. more»

Onward with the Seychelles! My final stop was North Island where I stayed in Villa 11, the 5,000-square-foot behemoth that led to my intense claustrophobia upon returning home to our one-bedroom apartment. (Incidentally, I had always considered our place to be quite large, especially by New York standards.) If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say the villa’s deck alone was probably equal to five of our apartments, which is why I spent most of my time there. It’s also why an unnecessarily high percentage of my photos from this little island feature that spot as well. More to come as I’ve done a dreadful job of chronological organization and this is by far not the end of my film (well, digital) trail. more»

It’s a shame that I am posting these Seychelles images out of chronological order; it would be so lovely to tell a mini-story of my trip. But Four Seasons’ images had to be done pronto despite being the third property I visited, and for whatever reason I was aching to edit Fregate Island Private’s images next.

As the name implies, Fregate is a private island. The resort has just sixteen villas. The day we choppered in from Mahe was probably the clearest and bluest I’ve ever seen. Lucky me, I got to co-pilot (sitting next to the pilot while gaping at the view makes you co-pilot, right?). At this point I also find it necessary to attempt to explain the colors on these islands. They are too vibrant to be called brilliant. To put it another way: I’m not one to sit at a table and eat a three-course meal without at least the company of a good book or New York magazine, but here, the entertainment is free and it lasts all day and it never—NEVER—gets boring. more»

Just returned from two glorious work- and fun-filled weeks in the Seychelles, where I visited five islands and six resorts. First up is the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles, which opened last February. I’ll be swimming in photos for the next week or so…more to come! more»

I’ve been spending a lot of time working with the good folks over at Anthony Lawrence-Belfair. Photographing their new Island fabric collection has been a breath of fresh air this winter. Somehow it seems every time I go over to their West 23rd Street showroom, we’re experiencing some sort of post-apocalyptic weather, and spending time photographing this beachy-themed collection has given me a much needed escape from reality. Oh, and their custom furniture is so insanely comfy that I nearly fell asleep while taking five at a recent photo shoot. more»

Every January we like to put together a little collection of our favorite photos from the year before–a Lion in Oil annual, if you will. And with every new year we vow to top the year before. Well, we did our fair share of traveling this year, and if we want to raise the ante for 2010, we’ve definitely got our work cut out for us. Anyway, our book arrived yesterday and we are thrilled. It’s our prettiest one yet! You can take a look at a digital version on Blurb (where you can also purchase said book).

This is the piece I did for Robb Report magazine covering the Four Seasons and Grand Wailea pools in Maui, both of which opened (or reopened) over the summer. I plan to look at this photo every day for the next, oh, six months to combat the imminently approaching NYC cold. Link to the online article is here.

I was flattered when an editor at Argentinian newspaper Diario Perfil contacted me over the summer about featuring my photography in their home supplement. The article came out last weekend, and I seriously blushed when I read it (thanks to my Spanish degree!). I’ll humbly skip translating it here and those who are dying to read it can try out their own habilidades de la traducción. But I do love this last sentence: Por tierra, aire o mar, no hay destino que se escape de la lente y la curiosidad de Jackie Caradonio :: By land, air or sea, there is no destination that can escape the lens and curiosity of Jackie Caradonio!

How exciting for John and I to once again work together on a project. It’s been a long year (plus) of separate endeavors so this competition for a mural was a long overdue collaboration. Surrounding the construction of the Freedom Tower, we conceived Skyscape. Here’s the project description:

What makes New York’s skyline so powerful is not the skyscrapers themselves, but the void between and around them, the vibrant hues of sky that hug their every angle. Skyscape focuses on that negative space in a site-specific work that combines photographs of the space above the construction site taken from surrounding boroughs over the course of a single day. The idea is that, not only will our skyline change dramatically with the addition of the Freedom Tower, but the shape of the sky itself, the space it encompasses, and therefore, the relationship between the buildings, the sky, and us will change. We still recognize the buildings’ forms, but they become the void—the sky is now the subject. more»

It’s great to be back after a post-graduate road trip through the desert Southwest and northern Mexico. After a while, the wide open spaces had me longing for the confined claustrophobia of the city. I walked or drove through five international border stations, saw the sun rise over the Oscuras Mountains, toured a missile park and decommissioned nuclear silo, walked the Spiral Jetty, dreamed of lightning in central New Mexico, swam in the great Salt Lake, slept in a utopia, sped through a dystopia, shopped with polygamous Mormons, and hiked next to a legal brothel. All in all, I clocked over 6,000 miles in six weeks. You can read about the trip origins and research goals here and, because there’s still so much information to parse, you can follow the progress here.

The avid LIO reader (if such a person exists) may remember this home in Stamford, Connecticut, from when I photographed it last year for Vacation Homes magazine. After months on the editorial roster, the editors ended up asking me to write the article as well. The owner of the home, Francine Gardner, is an interior designer who owns the Interieurs showrooms in Soho and West Hollywood. I love what she did with this house, an old stable for the Vanderbilt family, as she somehow managed to hold on to the historical aspects that make it unique (its single-story, U-shape layout and original stone walls, for instance) and at the same time create a very contemporary atmosphere. more»

No trip through the American Southwest would be complete without a stop in Marfa, Texas. The 1.6-square-mile town of roughly 2,100 owes much of its success as a major hub for minimalist art to Donald Judd, who, in 1979, purchased a large parcel of land—a decommissioned fort—that would serve as the palette for his reinvention of art outside of the New York scene. Today, the Chinati Foundation preserves Judd’s large-scale works, which can be found throughout the town. Perhaps his most identifiable work—his concrete blocks—are in a field adjacent to the renovated artillery sheds that house additional works by Judd as well as many of his contemporaries (most notably Dan Flavin).

But about these concrete works: although inexplicably not part of the guided tours hosted by the Chinati Foundation, we actually found the self-exploratory aspect to be far more rewarding. (We determined that group tours make us feel rushed and, inevitably, lead to others—impatient as they are—feeling irritated with our slowing them down.) The rain’s coming and going gave us some torrential clouds and amazing lighting opportunities, and also allowed us to seek shelter within the structures themselves (although, it’s my understanding that that was somewhat forbidden). more»

I joined John for the latter part of his travel fellowship through the Southwest and Mexico. We stopped at a magical place I remembered vaguely from my childhood: White Sands, NM, where the world’s largest gypsum dune field makes for an exceptional alternative to the lack of snow in this part of the world. 275-square miles of pure white vistas was an astounding sight to behold, as was the miraculous sunset light bouncing off these corrugated steel picnic huts. (My fellow ’80s babies will also remember a certain man-band in white linen outfits prancing about here. Perhaps I was inspired by Boyz II Men, but, on a more personal level, an animated gif depicts just how excited I was to to be here.) more»

Last month we hit up a couple of Hawaiian islands, mostly for vacation, but a little bit for work. While in Maui, I shot two new hotel pools. On the left and after the jump are the pools at the Grand Wailea. To the right is the beginnings of the Four Seasons Maui’s Serenity Pool, which sadly was more of a construction site than anything “serene” at the time of the visit. But they were nice enough to put a luxury cabana together for me and the light was just right so, despite the fact that I almost backed myself and the camera into an empty pool, I got a pretty decent shot. And speaking of cameras, John has taken mine hostage and is presently fleeing to the Mexican border. Let’s hope he takes (and posts!) some good photos on his journey. more»

This assignment for Art & Antiques magazine was a bit different than the usual for me. I met with the magazine’s editor at the home of a man who has spent a lifetime collecting artifacts from early American politics. In the case of the cover, I suppose the editors thought a flag with Abraham Lincoln’s name misspelled combined with a running mate whose unfortunate first name was “Hannibal” was just bizarre enough for the cover. more»

When William Gibson said that the future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed, he could certainly have been talking about Beijing. Through sheer force of will, swaths of the city leapt into the future, producing some of the most interesting urban experiments. All while creating amazing contradictions in proximity. Where else can you snack on live scorpions on sticks next to a gleaming nike flagship store. But it works, it was fun, and could provide infrastructural guidance for the u.s. I hope Jackie can go with me next time!
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I managed to do a quick site inspection at the Gansevoort Hotel while in Turks & Caicos. This is one of those properties where skill really isn’t a factor in shooting it–its lines are so clean and spaces so elegant, I think a trained chimp could photograph it with amazing results! more»

During the first five months of 2009 John and I got to see some amazing things: first me in Germany, then John was off to Beijing and Tokyo, then I headed over to South Africa. The only complaint we had was that we never got to cash in on each others’ trips! This time, with a shoot at the new Estates at Grace Bay Club in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Island, we were finally both able to go. more»

I got the rare opportunity to do something I often wish for: a chance to revisit an old shoot. Almost always after editing a project, I think of better compositions or more interesting angles that I should have caught the first time around. Luckily, when it comes to the Brooklyn bachelor pad I shot last year, a Paris magazine was interested in seeing more of the house and I was quite happy to oblige. I managed to capture more of the blue kitchen and I think this time I did it much more justice. Also got around to the bedroom and deck, which add a “lived-in” element that I felt the previous set lacked. more»

Better late than never! From my trip to China in mid-March, this was from the hike along the Simatai portion of the Great Wall. This is the only portion of the Great Wall that still has the original Ming Dynasty appearance and just my luck it is also the steepest. What are referred to as stairs would more honestly be described as imposing stone ladders. The weather was pretty damn cold, but it was an amazing experience being truly isolated from the madness of Beijing.

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A little bit more of the One&Only Cape Town. These are the two restaurants in the resort, Nobu and Maze. I’m no connoisseur but I will say the the food was absolutely fantastic. Springbok, Crocodile, Kudu, Kingklip, and Cob were all new to my palate and each was better than the last. Oh, and of course, I loved that origami sculpture snaking along the ceiling of Nobu. more»

Kerzner International’s One&Only resorts opened their first urban property in Cape Town on April 3–although you’d never know you were in a metropolitan area from the look of the lushly landscaped islands they created to make quite the little tropical oasis. I guess they got the island-building bug from another Kerzner property, Atlantis the Palm in Dubai. As is often the case when visiting a luxury resort like the One&Only, the bathroom was my favorite part, with a lovely egg-shaped tub, frosted glass doors, and a rainfall showerhead that made me cry when I came home to my pathetic New York apartment shower. more»

One would assume that after seeing elephants daily for four consecutive days, one would no longer be compelled to take hundreds of photos of said elephants during each encounter. One would be incorrect in this assumption. That said, I am posting one photo here with a link to a very–ahem, very–thorough slideshow of my time on safari. Hope those that are patient enough to sit through it all enjoy!