THE SELBY: INSIDE THE HOMES OF THE PEOPLE YOU WANT TO KNOW

For a while now, The Selby has been one of my absolute favorite sites on the internet — and if you haven't stumbled across it yet, consider this your introduction.

Created by New York-based photographer Todd Selby, the premise is deceptively simple: he photographs the homes of artists, designers, musicians, models, and other creatives with genuinely interesting spaces. No staging, no stylists, no art direction. Just real homes, real mess, real personality. It's raw in the best possible way, and a genuinely fresh approach to portraiture.

There's something about seeing where someone actually lives that tells you more about them than any interview ever could. The books on the shelf, the chaos on the kitchen counter, the postcards pinned above the desk — it all adds up. The Selby gets that, and the results are consistently fascinating.

A perfect example: Selby recently visited Josh Conner and Lyz Olko — the designers behind cult New York label Obesity & Speed — at their East Village apartment on February 9th. Their home is exactly what you'd hope: layered, personal, and completely their own. It's the kind of shoot that makes you feel like you actually know someone.

What's remarkable is how quickly the project took off. Selby launched the site in June 2008, initially just posting shoots of his friends. Within months, requests were flooding in daily from people all over the world wanting to be featured. Top brands and companies began reaching out to collaborate. That kind of organic momentum says everything about how much this resonates — people are hungry for something real.

And Selby himself is easily one of the more interesting figures behind the lens. Before photography took over, his résumé included stints as a translator, a Tijuana tour guide for the International Brotherhood of Machinists, a researcher into the California strawberry industry, a Costa Rican cartographer, a consultant on political corruption to a Mexican senator, an art director at a venture capital firm, an exotic flower wholesaler, a Japanese clothing designer, and a vermicomposting entrepreneur. The man contains multitudes — which might explain why he's so good at finding them in other people.

With a book deal already in the works — The Selby Is In Your Place is due out in April 2010, focusing on authors, musicians, artists, and designers in their homes — it's safe to say this is just the beginning. Right now though, the website is more than enough. It's one of those rare corners of the internet that makes you slow down and actually look.

Bookmark it. You'll thank me later. → theselby.com

Tags: The Selby, Todd Selby