'It's All About the View'

After living in this apartment for nearly 18 years, photographer Amanda Weil taught herself how to renovate it.

- By Wendy Goodman. Photographs by Stephen Kent Johnson

THE FIRST THING photographer Amanda Weil asks "pretty much anyone who walks into her Village apartment is to stand, in profile, before a translucent-glass door so she can take a picture. Turned into silhouettes, they are displayed on a wall in a grid. "My life is so much about creating community," she says. "And whether it's the UPS guy or whatever, these are your people!"

Weil's photographs mingle on the walls with art made by her friends. Some of her photos, like the seascape shower door, have been transformed into architectural features by Weil Studio, founded in 1993, through which she collaborates with architects and designers to produce installations based on her work. Transparency and translucency have long fascinated her, and an early inspiration was stained glass: "Light is the embodiment of the spirit," she says, "and that just really spoke to me."