Following Korea, I spent nearly two weeks wandering eastern China. Well, perhaps wandering, which implies roughing it in a rucksack-and-sleeping-bag kind of way, gives an inaccurate impression. Rather, I spent the time bouncing between amazing resorts and hotels throughout the cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou.

First up was the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake, which I would sooner describe as a resort than a hotel due to its stunning lakefront location and out-of-this-world spa. Though one of the heaviest snowfalls in recent Hangzhou history kept me from enjoying the former, it gave me the perfect excuse to spend even more time in the latter, whose vivid use of color—golds in the reception, vibrant pinks in the treatment rooms, and cool turquoises and slates in the amazing indoor pool—had me wishing the snow would never let up. more»

Generally, I hate the doctor. I pass out at the sight of a needle. I sweat through my clothes while sitting in waiting rooms. I get jumpy just thinking about that tissue paper that covers the examination table. *Shudder.* But after visiting Chaum Center, Seoul’s newest medical center, destination spa, and health club wrapped into one amazing 400,000-square foot facility, I’m ruined for life. A futuristic interior filled with modern art and sleek yet comfy furniture? A gourmet Mediterranean restaurant serving organic cuisine? Cute pink jammies in place of those awful papery backless gowns? Forget it, I will never set foot in a doctor’s office again unless it’s at Chaum Center. more»

It is snowing steadily as we walk in two orderly lines to the 38th parallel. I feel like a kindergartner with a safety partner when John pushes me into the opposite line so we can be next to each other. Having stopped at the top of a wide set of cement stairs overlooking the guards—you know, the guards in mirrored glasses and judo-ready poses who stare at the guards in furry hats and long grey coats who, in turn, stare back with their own unwavering glare—we are given specific orders. “Do not point, wave, or make gestures of any kind toward North Korea,” Corporal Casiano, tells us. “Do not get too close to the guards and do not try to pass them. Their orders are to get physical with anyone who does.”

Duly noted. I’m not here to get my ass kicked.

In the distance, the faint outline of magnificent white-tipped mountains trace the edge of the horizon. I imagine they’d make great blue squares and black diamonds; then immediately wonder if such a thing will ever be possible in my lifetime. Ugly blue trailers—equal numbers belonging to the North and South (we can’t have anyone feeling more powerful now, can we?)—line the exact positioning of the 38th parallel. Dated watch towers overhead look more like abandoned shanties than the surveillance headquarters of an evil empire. Little more is visible through the winter’s heavy fog and snowflakes. Nonetheless, the enemy to which I cannot refer is watching—invisible, ubiquitous, omnipotent. Can I feel them watching me? Or do I just think I can feel them watching me? Perhaps, like many Westerners, I am just so obsessed with this place that Bill Clinton once called “the scariest place on earth” that even the slightest strangeness elicits a palpable and unrecognizable fear.

The most surprising thing about the de-militarized zone is the lack of any real action taking place. Despite the feeling of a certain intangible and unspoken threat hanging in the air, the actual physical stimulus remains at an incredible low. Anywhere else, empty trailers, empty train stations, and empty observation platforms would make for a mind-numbingly dull experience. And yet, whether due to expectation or reality, it is this disparate solitude that makes the tension along the border that much more poignant. Its emptiness simply reinforces that my every move—whether I’m toeing the ambiguously-drawn yellow line on the observation deck, which, after crossing, I can no longer take photos; or sheepishly edging near that guard poised in his foreboding ready-to-tear-your-shit-up stance—is under surveillance. Perhaps if I could look them back square in the eye, I’d have less discomfort in knowing that they—whoever and wherever they are—are watching.

Oddly, this part of Korea, the part most Americans think of first when the country is mentioned, is not present in Seoul, which is just an hour-long bus ride away. John and I mentioned our trip to several Seoulites we met during our week in the city, and received widely varied—though generally disapproving—responses: “that’s just a tourist area for foreignersâ€� or “that’s not the real Korea” or (my favorite) “it’s not very nice there.” It made the concept of perspective ever-present in my mind during this trip, though no matter how hard I tried to think like a local—reading their English-language newspaper everyday and trying to understand how calling another country “belligerent” a handful of times in a single article could be considered objective—I just couldn’t fathom how this border with the only wholly closed country remaining on our planet could be regarded in such an incurious manner.

And speaking of perspective, more than a few times, John and I couldn’t help wondering: is there some mirror-image group of North Korean tourists on the other side of this tunnel learning about evil South Korea, and therefore, evil US? Corporal Casiano assured us this was not possible. But I couldn’t help thinking that, not only does such a bizarro-world scenario seem entirely possible, it still wouldn’t be the strangest thing happening at the DMZ. more»

The older I get, the less I care about the holidays. It’s a simple fact of life that a Barbie Dream House just can’t brighten my life the way it once did. That said, I got the best gift ever this year when I came home from my holiday to see a stack of Robb Report’s January issue featuring my cover photo and feature story on Seychelles. Spreading the magazines out on my kitchen table like a nerdy little boy with his favorite Magic cards (remember those?!), I swear I felt a flicker of those elated heart palpitations I used to know so well. Happy New Year, everyone! more»

I’m off on a wintry journey and I couldn’t be less prepared for the freezing Midwestern temps after spending last weekend in the absolute perfection that is Anguilla. Ani Villa, located on the island’s Little Bay, is the first of many spectacular rental villas the company of the same name will be dropping into remote locations all over the world. I’m definitely crossing my fingers that their Sri Lanka property (set to open in 2013) is in my future. Until then, I guess the cold trek home for Christmas will have to suffice. Happy holidays everyone! more»

Another of my projects for Archidose blogger John Hill’s new book. This is 580 Carroll, a super-sexy residential building in Park Slope by Enrique Norton. Being that it comprises an entire block, I had two facades to shoot and I still can’t decide which is more fun. Although, granted, one facade is open to the street and another is blocked by an imposing (yet ultra-modern and well-designed) fence that required acrobatics rivaling my cheerleading days to get a decent angle.

There will eventually be a good number of these Archidose projects on here. Consequently, I’m curious to see how long I will continue to work the word “dose” into the headline. I’m willing to put an ungodly amount of time into googling words like “dose,” “dosing,” and “dosage” so it’s fair to say I will likely succeed in going the distance. more»

I’ve been helping out John Hill whose Archidose blog is kind of a big deal. When I heard that he is putting out a book next year featuring all of the latest and greatest in New York architecture, I obviously wanted to jump onboard in any way that I could. But to be honest, I wasn’t exactly thrilled when he asked me to shoot Frank Gehry’s Beekman Tower. I had no plan for how to tackle the behemoth, especially knowing that one of its facades was still marred by unsightly scaffolding. Well, after an early rise on a Saturday morning (how else could I avoid the oppressive downtown crowds?) I discovered that, with a little bit of interborough walking and a lot of trespassing, you can accomplish almost anything. More Archidose assignments to come… more»

And now for the second piece I wrote and photographed for Robb Report’s October villa round-up. Now off to enjoy a much-needed vacation in Austin; it’s no North Island, but I’ll take what I can get!

A wonderful surprise arrived in my inbox just as I was making a harried attempt at packing for our 10-day trip to Austin: my two articles (+ accompanying photography) for Robb Report’s Top Villas of the World round-up, featured in the October issue. I’m so happy with both this piece, which is for Twin Farms in Barnard, Vermont, as well as the spread for North Island (coming up momentarily). There’s nothing like getting great news right before leaving town!

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!

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»

Thought I would post my article for the One&Only Cape Town resort that ran in the August issue of Robb Report magazine. The full, more legible article is online here. I was quite pleased with the way the photos correspond with the text—although, apparently, my editor now thinks I’m some sort of lush due to my opening paragraph.

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»