The Room Is Now a Set: What the Camera Did to the Private Home
Consider the fiddle leaf fig. For most of the twentieth century, the houseplant was chosen for how it lived: how it responded to light, how difficult it was to kill, how much it grew. At some point in the early 2010s, the fiddle leaf fig stopped being selected on those terms. It became the most popular houseplant in the English-speaking world not because it thrives in domestic environments, it doesn't: it is notoriously difficult, dropping leaves at the slightest disruption, but because its large, flat, architectural leaves photograph exceptionally well against a white wall. The fiddle leaf fig is an Instagram plant. Its popularity is a camera decision disguised as a taste decision. This is a small example of a large shift. Over the past fifteen years, the interior of the private home has undergone a transformation in its fundamental purpose. It was once primarily designed for the comfort, function, and psychological needs of the people living inside it. It is now, in millions of c...
