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A vintage pendant lamp hangs in Calero’s charcoal-hued home studio.

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Items rest just so on Calero’s George Nakashima coffee table. “I rearrange things when a new piece comes in,” she says. “Each time, it’s a celebration to make a still life.”

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Photography by Camille Becerra | Words by Tim McKeough | Produced by Kate Berry

Photography by Camille Becerra | Produced by Kate Berry | Words by Tim McKeough

The Colombian aerie of magnetic photographer and stylist Anita Calero is a source of boundless inspiration.

Worlds

Worlds

But returning to Cali was not about slowing down. The beauty she lives with, inside and outside, continues to inspire creative ideas. During the height of the pandemic, clients sent her products to photograph at her home studio, an outdoor space cloaked in black paint below her deck. Since then, she usually works at a small desk in her bedroom or out on the terrace, in between traveling to Barcelona to visit her partner and New York for shoots. Soon she plans to spend more time at a photo studio she’s in the process of building just down the road. In Calero’s home, furniture and objects are far more than decoration. They are reminders of people, places, and experiences—and a collection where no one thing is more important than the others. “They are my family, my portfolio, and part of me,” she says. “I can’t pick favorites. It’s everything, together.”

are like relationships:

“Lorem nectotaqui aut ium quam quis volorat ecepeli tinus, atis idi sequam.”

exactly what I wanted.”

But it’s often the smallest things that are most impressive—a vase filled with colorful feathers; a stack of organically shaped wood cutting boards; sterling silver offerings collected from Italian and Mexican flea markets; bowls of artfully arranged mangosteens, passion fruit, and tangerines gathered from the market. In Calero’s hands, these found objects and intricate artifacts become the basis for striking vignettes. “I have nature everywhere,” says Calero. “You name it, it’s here: nests, stones, birds, butterflies. I rearrange things when a new piece comes in. Each time, it’s a celebration to make a still life.” She even customized the pavers outside by pressing large leaves into wet concrete while they were curing, as though they were intaglios.

“I didn’t buy those pieces as investments; I bought them because I loved them and I lived with them,” she says. Today she still furnishes her living space with a Nakashima coffee table, Hans Wegner lounge chairs, and a sofa by Carl Gustav Hiort af Ornäs, but has little interest in being labeled a collector—at least not in the rarefied sense of the word. Instead she is intently focused on enjoying the beauty of timeworn objects and materials and the gifts of the natural world. To illustrate the former: Anchoring her living room is a hefty shelving unit custom-made from wood joists and beams she discovered while they were being thrown out at a New York construction site. “I had them sandblasted and made into blocks, and I just built it,” she says.

“I didn’t buy those pieces as investments; I bought them because I loved them and I lived with them,” she says, even though she was astounded by how they had appreciated in value. “I mean, one of the chairs I found at DeLorenzo years earlier fetched for much more than I had originally paid.”  Today she still furnishes her living space with a Nakashima coffee table, Hans Wegner lounge chairs, and a sofa by Carl Gustav Hiort af Ornäs, but has little interest in being labeled a collector—at least not in the rarefied sense of the word. Instead she is intently focused on enjoying the beauty of timeworn objects and materials and the gifts of the natural world. To illustrate the former: Anchoring her living room is a hefty shelving unit custom-made from wood joists and beams she discovered while they were being thrown out at a New York construction site. “I had them sandblasted and made into blocks, and I just built it,” she says.

Outside, the brick and stucco exterior is painted black, a color that sets it apart from the verdant palms, ferns, and orchids that grow around it. “I always dreamed about having a black house, which everyone critiqued,” says Calero. “But I followed my wishes and did exactly what I wanted.” Back in New York, she sold her loft in Chelsea, as well as her escape in the Hamptons, and began downsizing. After amassing collectible mid-century modern furniture by the likes of Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, and George Nakashima while it was still affordable, she auctioned most of it at Christie’s in 2013, along with some of her Scandinavian ceramics and fine art.

“I’m an architect at heart, and before I’m gone I want an imprint of my whole creative vision,” she says. “I had been contemplating doing this all my life. I wanted a place that was integrated with nature, with lots of light and windows, that would also permit me to live there until the end of my days.” With a local architect providing technical assistance, Calero conceived a compact, 722-square-foot, two-story house with two bedrooms and concrete floors. The living room, kitchen, and primary bedroom are clustered together on the upper level under vaulted ceilings paneled in achapo wood, enabling single-story living. A guest suite is tucked away below.

Calero approached the owner, even though the property wasn’t for sale. At first, he declined to sell it. But when his circumstances changed two years later, he approached her with an offer. “I knew that I wanted it,” she says. She also knew exactly what to do once she owned it. She razed the existing house and began drawing plans for a simple structure that reflected her idea of a forever home: a dreamy abode where she could put down roots to live out the rest of her life.

“I love the idea of being attached to a place that’s still so primitive, so basic, so lush, so green, so pure,” she says. “At night the crickets and frogs are really loud. Sometimes when I talk on the phone, people say, ‘Don’t talk, just put the phone down,’ so they can listen.” It started when she visited her sister-in-law in Cali, the South American country’s third largest metro area with a population of more than 2 million, and stumbled upon the property—a vertiginous mountainside oasis thick with tropical vegetation where there was only a dilapidated home that had been clumsily built in fits and starts. “I’ve always said that houses are like relationships: You know when it’s right,” muses Calero. But in this case, she loved the land and saw few redeeming qualities in the residence. “It was the view of the mountains, the view of the city, and where it sits in a beautiful green forest, even though it’s just minutes to the center of Cali,” she explains.

or Anita Calero, returning to Cali, Colombia, after living and working in New York City for 38 years was all part of a long-term strategy. “I said, ‘When I’m 70 years old, I’m coming back,’” Calero remembers, relaxing on her

For Anita Calero, returning to Cali, Colombia, after living and working in New York City for 38 years was all part of a long-term strategy. “I said, ‘When I’m 70 years old, I’m coming back,’” Calero remembers, relaxing on her

deck made of local abarco wood, where the air is peppered with birdsong and big-leaf tropical plants ripple in the breeze to reveal glimpses of the city below. Over the past decade, the photographer and stylist, celebrated for her ability to compose hauntingly beautiful still lifes and capture interiors that appear ready to nourish the soul, put her plan into action. In the process, she built a house that reflects her inherent way of finding beauty in everyday things.

Credits

Above: Floor Lamp, OK the Store; Custom Canvas Chair; Vintage Stool and Bowl; Bird Figures, MoMA Design Store and Artesanías de Colombia. Left: Round Walnut Dining Table and Walnut Grass Seated Dining Chairs by George Nakashima, 1stDibs; La Volaire Suspension Lamp by Mathieu Challiere, Industry West; Taper Holder, Ted Muehling; Planter, Paula Greif Ceramics; Pendant Lamp, MoMA Design Store; Sculpture by Federico De Vera, De Vera.

Credits

Sofa by Carl Gustav Hiort af Ornäs, 1stDibs; Sofa Upholstery Fabric, Ralph Lauren; Throw Blanket, Bloom; Armchairs by Hans J. Wegner, 1stDibs; Armchair Upholstery Fabric, Pierre Frey; Art by Gemma Comas, Tessa Traeger, Maria Robledo, and Geof Karn.

Credits

Coffee Table by George Nakashima, 1stDibs; Puput Mobile, Solito Mobiles; Sand All-Purpose Bins by The Home Edit, The Container Store; Snake Skeleton, Evolution; Custom Shelves by Anita Calero; Rod Candlesticks, Cereria Subirà; The Først Candle Vessel, House of Good Mercantile; Sconce, Serge Mouille; Paper Hermès Bag Replica by Matthew Sporynzki; Framed Photograph by Maria Robledo.

Credits

Above: Vintage Pendant Lamp; Birds in Harmony Mobile, MoMA Design Store; Bench and Fruit Basket, Anuiki. Left: Butterfly Pulls by Ted Muehling for E.R. Butler & Co; Art by Anita Calero, Jody Morlock, and Consuelo Lago.

Credits

Bedroom: Custom Side Tables; Rug, Dolma; Duvet Cover and Bold Pillowcase, Frette; Blanket, Paula Rubenstein; Photograph by Annie Leibovitz; Sculpture by Anita Calero. Bathroom: Unfold Pendant Lamp by Muuto, DWR; Vintage Mirror; Handheld Mirror, Turpan; Curtain, ABC Carpet & Home; Euphoria Cosmopolitan Showerhead, Grohe; Balance Ball, Gaiam.

“I’ve always said that houses

You know when it’s right.”

having a black house, which

I always dreamed about

everyone critiqued. But I

followed my wishes and did

“

Credits

Custom Cedro-Wood Dresser; Chamba Vessel, Taller Vivo; Plissé Toaster by Michelle de Luchi, MoMA Design Store; Avocado Vase by Ed Spurr and Amy Hall Browne, MoMA Design Store.

Credits

Above, clockwise from left: Signal Desk Lamp by Jielde, Finnish Design Shop; Knife Holders, Merci; Stainless Steel Grater, Natura Casa; Checkerboard Bowls, Global Table; Poppy Soup Plates, Astier de Villatte; Goblet, Paul Greif Ceramics; Victorian-Era Bed Warmers, Paula Rubenstein; Wood Piece, Taller Vivo; Fruit Stand, Anuiki; Photograph by Tessa Traeger.

Credits

Above: On Calero: Marina Pajama Set, Sleepy Jones. Below: Dress, Comme des Garçons.

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Signal Desk Lamp by Jielde, Finnish Design Shop ($398)

Walnut Grass Seated Dining Chair, Nakashima Woodworkers (price upon request)

Spiga Mobile, Solito Mobiles ($397)

Eames Bird by Vitra, MoMA Design Store ($410)

Within

Natural

issue

the

SUMMER 2022

issue

the

SM22: Home Is Where You Are

Homework

Two couples left busy New York City for a circa-1928, 14,000-square-foot school-turned-residence upstate.

Space Jam

Multi-hyphenate Candace Marie chronicles a day in the life at her hardworking studio apartment.