Raising the Baa

Interior and architecture photographer Paolo Abate captures how to cozy up this January cocooned in the finest artisanship, from hand-spun cashmere throws to Shibori blankets made by fifth-generation Japanese craftspeople.

Growing up with parents who had ‘very creative minds’ and an architect grandfather paved the way for Naples-born Paolo Abate to study interior architecture at the University of Lugano. “Art was always very important for my family, and I’ve always been passionate about images of historical buildings—their details, the patina, but also the story of who lived in them and how. You can view it as the ‘anima’ that is intrinsic to the ‘feel’ of a particular building.” It’s perhaps why Abate finds it challenging to photograph contemporary buildings: “they can be less personal, less layered.”

Upon completion of his degree, Abate was lured to photograph abandoned palazzi in France, Italy and Switzerland. The Neapolitan Palazzo Cassano Ayerbo d’Aragona remains a favorite because he feels it represents Neapolitan historical architecture at its best, but also because of the shadows of the monumental staircase destroyed during the war. “For me, I feel the proportion, light, and shape of this staircase is very particular.”

“At the beginning of the pandemic, no one could travel very easily, and I had this great archive of pictures, so I thought, well let’s see how people respond”. Publications including Architectural Digest came knocking and Abate continued to explore the intersection of dappled light, worn surface textures, and decades-old personal objects in his photography.

“The ABASK blankets I photographed,” he explains, “are shot in my family’s holiday house in Liguria which was originally built for one of the main families in the village who were connected to boats. On the ceiling of one of the living rooms is a fresco of Neptune.

I tried to draw a connection to the different rooms that have special floors or ‘Pavimento alla Genovese’ which is a sort of Venetian floor with black stones throughout, as well as seeing how the blankets worked with the many different ‘chiavarina’ in the house—a typical chair handmade in this region.

There’s something incredibly personal about blankets: they envelop you but can also be your armor. There’s this feeling when you are cocooned in one, and in many ways that’s also the feeling of this house which has so many stories. And just like the blankets, this house is filled with color."

Waves of Warmth

"The texture of this Norlha blanket is dense but there’s also an undulation to the way it’s stitched which made me think of the waves here by the sea. When I shot this on a friend, we were out photographing at sunrise, but there was this contrast of a cloudy landscape and a dark sea, so the light had a really interesting quality to it. Inside the house, I wanted to highlight that idea of waves, so I shot it on a ‘chiavarina’ chair which is also undulating… I wanted to reference that fluidity."

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Earthy Delights

"The warm autumnal shades of this Studio Shamshiri x ABASK throw made me want to shoot this with the ground and the rocks, the colors of the earth. At this time of year, it’s not so cold here so people go to the beach all day and read their books wrapped in a blanket. I wanted to recreate that feeling. When I photographed this blanket inside, I shot this in a very blue room with old walls where the plaster has been destroyed. It’s a cold room and the blanket is like a jolt of warmth, of color. I liked how these different colors worked together."

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Shop Studio Shamshiri x ABASK
Shop Studio Shamshiri x ABASK

Dappled Paint

"Here, I wanted to focus on the interplay between the ‘macchia’ or dyes on the Shibori throw by Suzusan and the many details on the beautiful floor in the house. The way the shadows dance around and the light—there are lots of details. On the floor it also looks as if there’s the same ‘macchia’ and I felt it connected the two."

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"I tried to draw a connection to the different rooms that have special floors or ‘Pavimento alla Genovese’."

Paolo Abate

Blissful Blues

"There’s a great quote from the Italian architect Alessandro Mendini where he explains that an object in a space is almost like a personal pet—it looks like something which is animated in the space. Take a blanket on a chair and it’s almost like a person or organic shape is there; there’s this presence. The house has beautiful light at sunset, and I wanted to focus on the intensity of this color by Otherways—it’s an intense blue. And I wanted to play with the shapes that the light makes on the texture, how it can add something else to the surface of the blanket."

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Blankets & Throws

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Blankets & Throws

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