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Camera Angles

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 4/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

He's shot provocative pics of Calvin Klein briefs, not to mention directing a Madonna video and a film documenting jazz legend Chet Baker's decline. So what was missing from Bruce Weber's era-defining portfolio? Luxe outdoor furnishings, of course. Until he took a call from Dedon's founder and chairman, Bobby Dekeyser—and was invited to test the waters by shooting the company's 2010 ad campaign.

Departing from his signature photo noir to embrace sunny domesticity, Weber conceived the series around the idea of "coming home," symbolized by a tree house built in a massive oak at a nature reserve in Davie, Florida. Loudspeakers blared Jimi Hendrix and Guns N' Roses, as over 20 fashion models of varying ages and ethnicities pretended to eat, sleep, and cavort in and around the four-platform structure while wearing a wardrobe that included everything from tutus to pajamas. Props such as antique birdcages and vintage surfboards accented the Dedon-appointed scene.

Among the nonhuman models captured: seating by Jean-Marie Massaud. His limited-edition Slim Line DDC armchair and ottoman sport a houndstooth pattern woven from synthetic fiber; the same fiber, only in solid colors, clothes the powder-coated aluminum frame of his Seashell side chair. Martin Bergmann, Gernot Bohmann, and Harald Gründl of Eoos designed the Pontoon dining table. Eminently suitable for photogenic picnics, it's topped with high-pressure plastic laminate and offered in six sizes, two of them expandable. Janus et Cie, 800-245-2687; janusetcie.com. circle 428