House of Spoils: the lived passion for photography

A description on the gallery’s website reads: “The House of Spoils mission is simple – to support emerging photographers and to provide our customers with exceptional artwork for their walls.” That’s it. The whole thing is signed by hand with: Max Samis. Sounds very confident. For good reason. Anyone who explores the images available at House of Spoils will quickly realize that this Max Samis is a man of his word.

It’s like a journey through an endless summer. Photographer Harry Mark shows us three young women riding their bikes along the beach in Bali. Emily Abay gives us a few erotic moments during the “golden hour” on the Amalfi Coast. Lella Soper portrays her Fast Girl casually leaning against a Porsche 356 on Mulholland Drive. A real eye-­popper is Clint Robert’s newspaper-reading woman in his photograph The Daily, who – let’s put it this way – was in such a hurry to catch up on her reading that there was no time to get dressed. What all these works have in common is an aesthetic characterized by the light, the special, never the everyday. Nothing about these images is particularly flashy, however; they’re always subtle and unobtrusive – a fresh, often tongue-in-cheek look at the world. Personally curated by Max Samis. The photographers he represents also include Ted Gushue, Beau Simmons, Natalie Obradovich and Riley Harper. Artists who often first proved themselves on Instagram and whose work is now in demand as fine art prints. And who have found a physical home at House of Spoils.

Max Samis developed his unpretentious view of the art world and his fine sense for special things over the years. In 2013 he started sending out a daily newsletter called Mister Spoils. On a whim. And because it made for such great conversation at parties. “Once I started mentioning that I was the founder of a ‘cult-followed, secret newsletter with thousands of readers’ people were suddenly all ears. I had a good laugh from it,” as he recalls. 

Starting out with twenty-two subscribers, he already had thousands of followers just five years later. The content: travel tips, playlists, and men’s fashion brands, which Samis shared under the tagline “daily inspiration for cool kids”. “Our mission has always been to inspire smart guys to get out of bed and conquer what the day has in store. We wanted to provide something refreshing and simple to combat the ugly thoughts most people have in the moments right after their alarm goes off each morning.”

If you want to know what he wakes up to when his alarm goes, all you have to do is check out the cover of this magazine. The setting is simply quite exceptional. 

houseofspoils.com