Buckhead condo shows life through photos

There’s a kind of fashionable apartment in Manhattan that features open floor plans, sweeping vistas and walls lined with books that fill the space with coziness, class and curiosity. Kevin and Judy Wolman’s Buckhead condo is a send-up of the original, but instead of books, there are photographs. And so their Atlanta equivalent offers a visual library in a Manhattan-esque space.

The personality is still academic, if a little more fun.

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Sean Drakes/Special

Kevin and Judy Wolman began collecting photography about 10 years ago and focused on narrative pieces; some images represent social commentary or nostalgia, others humor or childhood.

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Sean Drakes/Special

A massive beach panorama, so crowded it conjures a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ scene, demonstrates Kevin Wolman’s collecting philosophy. ‘I think rooms need to have humor,’ he says.

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Sean Drakes/Special

What occupied several rooms in their old house now exists side by side in the condo’s great room, serving to divide the 50-foot-long space and keep it warm and friendly.

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Illustrating the point is the image in the dining area: a massive beach panorama, so crowded it conjures a “Where’s Waldo?” scene. It displays rows of bathers, their sunlit cellulite and imperfect bodies so in your face you can almost smell the sweat and Coppertone while you’re eating.

“I think rooms need to have humor,” says Kevin Wolman, a former interior designer who now curates private photography collections. “If you look in magazines and you see rooms that are so period-designed that they don’t look fun, why would you want to live in them?”

“If I had my choice, I would live in Central Park,” says Wolman, who is originally from New York. His wife, a child psychologist, hails from Charleston, S.C., and the couple compromised by moving here, a city they adore, in 1974. This condo is “as close” to Manhattan as we could get, he says.

Three and a half years ago, they moved from a house less than a mile away into this three-bedroom condo that basks in exposures to the south, north and east and has a view stretching from Midtown to Kennesaw.

By combining two units for a customized floor plan, their living space grew by 400 square feet, to a 3,000-square-foot condo.

And everything seemed to slip into place.

What occupied several rooms in their old house now exists side by side in the condo’s great room, serving to divide the 50-foot-long space and keep it warm and friendly. Having their place look like a home, not an art gallery, was an important consideration for the couple, and why they added Oriental rugs and hid the spiral duct work. The arrangement provides so many possibilities of where to lounge and which view to behold that it adds to the fun of the place.

The home skews modern, with signature mid-century pieces such as Eames chairs and a marble Saarinen table in the den area. But the design is meant to draw the eye not to the furniture — why they avoided patterns — but to eye level.

“I’d rather you see the detail in the artwork than the fabric on the sofa,” Wolman says.

Why photography? The way he sees it, there’s something about the realism of the medium that elicits reaction. “You can’t ignore it,” Wolman says. For Judy Wolman, it’s the story and humanity of the snapshot. “I think photography is one art medium where the story is more visible,” she says. “People can identify and say, ‘Oh, I remember going to a vacation spot that looked like that back in 1960,’ or ‘Gee, that looks like my grandmother when she would do her yard work.’”

The Wolmans began collecting about 10 years ago and focused on narrative pieces; some images represent social commentary or nostalgia, others humor or childhood.

Kevin Wolman’s favorite photo, though, is the one he took of his kids on Sanibel Island. On hearing that the beach sometimes sees wild boar, he told the kids to pose for a quick snapshot before boarding the boat. The resulting image, with son Scott carrying his sister Stacey on piggy back, exudes all the love and lightness of a family moment.

“Life’s too short to take it seriously,” Kevin Wolman says.

Decorating style: “Warm contemporary,” Wolman says, explaining that some people find the home traditional while others think it’s modern, “which is perfect,” he says, with a laugh. “It’s both worlds.”

Coolest feature: The photography!

Tips for good living: “My basic tenet in life and everything is ‘less is more,’” Wolman says, explaining his taste for a clutter-free home. Toward that end, especially when moving from a house to a condo, sufficient storage is crucial. Also, in decorating, too many people focus on what’s below eye level and forsake the art. “Develop a passion in collecting,” he says. “That’s what makes it your personality instead of a designer’s.”

Current project: The Wolmans are constantly rotating their artwork as they sell pieces and purchase others. “I think that keeps a collection alive when you keep moving it,” he says. As a result, there’s always the opportunity to see what you have in a new light.