story in today’s Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-me-my-shelf-and-i-tereasa-surratt-20151008-story.html
Tereasa Surratt has a tradition whenever she travels abroad: “I’ll go to a flea market or antique store and buy an old photo album.”
The globe-trotting multi-hyphenate (author-stylist-creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, etc.) now has crates of them: books and books of faded black-and-white images that tell stories of dating, travels, marriages — how other people built their lives.
It’s not about kitsch factor: “I won’t tear one apart to decorate with it,” Surratt says. “These albums have a soul.”
Her collecting impulse extends to children’s books in other languages (for 4-year-old daughter Charlie) and vintage nature books (for Wandawega, the Wisconsin camp she co-owns with husband David Hernandez).
In their modern Jeanne Gang–designed home in West Town — called the Brick Weave House — color-coded design, architecture and photography books are carefully stacked on floating shelves.
“This library was one of our main priorities when the house was built,” she says. “Whether we’re home or away, our books are an extension of us.”
