Hudson Hotel

I took the picture above May 1, 2002 in the Library Bar at the Hudson Hotel on W. 58th Street. I was there for the Village Voice, photographing a party that was being hosted by hotelier Ian Schrager. In all honesty, I was pretty bored photographing people standing around holding their drinks trying to look and sound important. So I wandered around a bit and came across this library room with a pool table. According to the HH website, the library is "reminiscent of an old English club or drawing room" and is "the perfect cozy hangout for relaxing by the enormous fireplace, chatting and drinking with friends [or] shooting billiards." Herbert Muschamp of the NYT writes that the room is dominated "by a pool table of British imperial aspirations." Travel & Leisure Magazine agrees that the "antique, royal purple pool table" dominates the room. They go on to say the ambience is "positively Ivy League." Indeed, the New York Observer went so far as to claim the "best thing" about the room is "the pool table in the center, covered in purple baize." While both the New York Observer and the NYT make mention of Ingo Maurer's metallic lamp shade above the pool table, it was only the Sunday Observer Magazine that made any mention of what I felt was most peculiar: photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino's shots of cows wearing couture hats. Needless to say, I have to go back check this place out again.