Photos from Home

It probably takes a genius or a well-meaning fool to bring out a big new book paying tribute to the American home right now. With the country reeling from the subprime mortgage crisis and many homeowners facing foreclosure, who would want to pore over a richly-produced volume that pays tribute to idea of friendly domicile?

Photographer and book packager Rick Smolan thinks this is the perfect time for such a book, and I don't know anyone who considers him a fool. Along with his sometime-collaborator David Cohen, Smolan created the hugely successful Day in the Life of series of photo books. He and his wife Jennifer Erwitt (daughter of photographer Elliott Erwitt) have produced a number of books on their own, including Smolan's latest, called America At Home (Running Press, $40).

As in previous books, Smolan has captured a portrait of Americans living in real time. In this case, he assigned 100 photojournalists to document people and their dwellings over the course of seven days. In addition, he invited thousands of amateurs to photograph their own homes, ultimately receiving about 250,000 digital images. The material was edited down to the 250 pictures that would eventually appear in the book.

The photographs reveal not only the distinctive architecture of America, but also the distinctive and varied emotions that make up the idea of home. The book is also stuffed with facts about Americans and their homes. (For instance: "American children today average an hour less sleep per night compared with 30 years ago.") There are also essays written by Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," New York Times columnist David Pogue, and novelist Amy Tan.

Smolan is known for his marketing and technological acumen, both of which are displayed in the new project: As he did in his groundbreaking book America 24/7, Smolan has created a website, myamericaathome.com, that allows buyers to drop an image of their own family (or home, or pets) into a template and order a custom-made wrap-around jacket for the volume.

He also lined up a group of sponsors to cover the production cost of the book. The primary sponsor, IKEA, will also provide a valuable distribution outlet for the book. With the backing of IKEA, Smolan also produced a similar book about the idea of home for the United Kingdom, shot entirely by British photographers. That book, with an introductory essay by Sir Paul McCartney (his daughter Mary was one of the photographers on the project), will launch later this month.

Smolan recently dropped by the American Photo offices to chat about his new project and what it means for photography. In an era when magazines no longer have the space or budget for large photo essays, the books he produces may point to one type of future for photojournalism.

AP: How did the idea for a book on the American home come about?

RS: I have two children, Phoebe, who's eight, and Jesse, who's five, and Phoebe went on her first sleepover last spring, and she was really nervous about it. The next morning she was full of beans about how she survived this big event. And on the way back I asked her what was the one thing she would remember forever about her first sleepover. And she leaned over and whispered, "Dad, did you know that other people's lives are different than ours?"

AP: And that question got you to thinking about showing how people live differently within their homes?

RS: Phoebe actually said, "Papa, why don't you do a book about how people are the same but different in their homes?" I thought, that's really interesting. It would be something like A Day in the Life of America but focused on the way people relate to their homes. When you ask people about their memories of home life or childhoods, you see them fall into this pool of memories. The smells and sounds of the rooms they lived in. Home isn't just a place, it's actually woven into the fabric of our personalities. I thought that if you could capture the emotions of home in photographs, it would be so cool.