Flavorwire

There’s nothing we love more than virtual voyeuristic visits with fellow fabulous New Yorkers. The original real-life interiors photographer Dominique Nabokov (long before The Selby and Backyard Bill started snapping pics of stylish spaces) started documenting the inside lives of others as understood by their living rooms some 20 years ago. Her visits with celebrated artists, writers, designers, intellectuals, and the occasional celebrity was compiled into a humble, but fascinating, survey titled New York Living Rooms.

As she explains in the preface to the late ’90s anti-design tome, it’s “not exactly about interior decoration. Although it represents a special and stylistic approach, it is above all a document. No rearranging, no adding of bouquets, no use of flood lights. I approach the living rooms like the people I photograph: a portrait as close to reality as possible.” From Reverend Al Sharpton’s purple, plant-filled home base in Brooklyn to Susan Sontag’s minimal chic space in Chelsea, click through to drop in on some of the most celebrated New Yorkers of our time.

Rev. Al Sharpton’s Living Room

Susan Sontag’s Living Room – Chelsea, New York City

Nan Goldin’s Living Room – Greenwich Village, New York City

Philip Glass’ Living Room – East Village, New York City

Louise Bourgeois’ Living Room – Chelsea, New York City

Robert Wilson’s Living Room – West Side Highway, New York City

Fernando Sanchez’s Living Room – Upper East Side, New York City

Tom Sachs’ Living Room – Little Italy, New York City

David Seider’s Living Room – Soho, New York City

Taylor Mead’s Living Room – Soho, New York City

Quentin Crisp’s Living Room – East Village, New York City

Francesco Clemente’s Living Room – Greenwich Village, New York City

Diane von Fürstenberg’s Living Room – Upper East Side, New York City

Julian Schnabel’s Living Room – West Village, New York City

Elle McPherson’s Living Room – Upper East Side, New York City