Writer, Speaker, Cultural Explorer

I’m an LA-based journalist and author focused on architecture, design, art, literature, and fashion. I love uncovering overlooked or unusual stories, following my own interests, and presenting them to others. Sometimes these interests result in a book, sometimes in a public lecture, and sometimes in a live interview about a compelling topic.

I got an undergraduate degree in archaeology, then a master’s degree in art history, and went to work for the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden before embarking on a career in broadcasting, writing, and public speaking. I was living in Chicago, hosting and co-producing long-running radio programs on NPR (WBEZ-FM) and WFMT, while writing for many publications, including:

Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Vogue, and Metropolitan Home.

An abiding fascinating with India led to my frequent travels there and eventually resulted in a landmark book, The Vanishing Stepwells of India, published in 2017 (Merrell, London), with a paperback edition in 2020 (my photographs of the Indian stepwells have been exhibited internationally), Since relocating to Los Angeles in 2018, I’ve lectured at many museums, universities, and clubs on a variety of topics, and in 2024 launched a live interview series, VISUAL WORLD with Victoria Lautman, sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians of Southern California.

My current project centers on the period Charles and Ray Eames spent in India but I’m always on the hunt for new obsessions.