IT’S TIME TO ADD PHOTOGRAPHY TO YOUR ART COLLECTION

Hear ye, hear ye, it’s time for photography (that rhymes, sort of). We have reached a point in our collective art collecting that we have fun abstract paintings, we have quirky still lifes, we have flowers and beaches, faces and watercolored places, and now – we’re ready to add some photography. This is us now.

I’ve started to collect a few pieces myself – Recently, a huge photo taken by a friend in LA of Clara, the 85 yr. old reigning champ of the bikini contest on Venice Beach. She’s in our bedroom now, and it totally changes the whole vibe of the room. It elevates it, and adds a bit of edge. It’s a bright happy piece, and it’s hard to get color so vibrant as it prints in large format photographs. And I’ve added a couple more pictures from NYC – a rad guy we met on the street in Soho one Saturday who’s been capturing kooky moments in the Nevada desert (think a pile of stuffed animals on the highway, abandoned by a passing car) sold me two great photographs from this series.

But where I really started my appreciation of great photography was with Anna Barzin. She’s been our Furbish photographer for over 7 years now, and I’ve traveled all around the world with her – Greece, Mexico, Peru, Turkey. She’s accompanied me on trips to speak on panels, and we’ve braved many a gift show together in NYC. We’ve set off on weekend eating adventures to Chicago, too-turnt up trips to Charleston, cray-filled California vacations and we’ve lost a few days in Las Vegas.

All the while, Anna has documented some of the best times of my life – she’s kept a pulse on my business for all these years, and what’s so special to me is, she’s saved so many memories for me of how I’ve grown, changed, lost and learned. As my horizons expanded, Anna was usually with me – always the most fun, and always taking amazing photos.

Anna has shot all of The Real Raleigh series on my blog, and she also shoots for several brands I creatively consult on. I trust her implicitly to translate my vibe to a visual, and I am so very stoked to offer her work for sale, for the very first time, today at Furbish.

The Anna Barzin pop-up is here! 40 limited edition photographs, exclusive to Furbish, featuring shots from some of our most favorite colorful places around the globe. From Sardinia to Saint-Tropez, NYC to Istanbul, Cambodia to Charleston – this series of photographs is an amazing edit of what Anna is so very good at – finding magical moments that evoke an easy-going emotion.

The photos are offered with a mat, which I’ve found is a great way to display this size work. The print size is 10.5″ x 13.5″, and it’s matted to 16″ x 20″. We picked this size because it’s big enough to totally shine on it’s own without looking too dainty, and it’s versatile enough to incorporate into an existing gallery wall. Unexpectedly great places to hang photography this size are the powder room (one piece is perfectly sized to perk up that space over the toilet), prop one on the kitchen sink for some character, or place on over a nightstand, hung low, with a table lamp off to the side.

I’d say find a piece that speaks to you – not necessarily the place (that’s fine too), but one that instantly sparks a memory, or elicits a little joy particle in your brain. Maybe it’s the color, or the movement in the photo, or it could even be the juxtaposition of two dissimilar things that provokes tension, and demands attention. I’m going to stop myself here because this is starting to sound ridiculous, but you get the point: photography is awesome, Anna is great at it, the pieces in the pop-up are affordable and ready to hang very chic-ly, and there’s something for everyone in this collection.