On and off for two years, Anne Day, bearing cameras, lights, lenses, stands and once even shovels, traveled from Salisbury to The New York Public Library. Her mission was to photograph, inside and out, the massive and ornate building on Fifth Avenue for a centennial edition of Henry Hope Reed and Francis Morrone’s book: “The New York Public Library: The Architecture and Decoration of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.” Her task was complicated by the fact that she had to shoot this public building with no people in sight. A pigeon, now and then. All right. But no people. And no snow, either.“This is an academic book that is meant to show the glory of the architecture — not the building as a cultural center in New York,” Day explained.So, with large-format film cameras, a couple of digital cameras, a number of lenses including a 17 mm tilt shift lens (to avoid distortion in wide angle shots), and aided, often, by helper Linda Brinkley, she would show up at 5 a.m., set up and shoot interiors until the doors opened for the public.Among those interiors is a view south of the South-North Gallery, with its marmoreal walls and floor, multiple arches and ornate ceiling, all caught in one splendid and perfect image.While the emphasis is, naturally, on the art and detail and soaring heights of this grand building, a few shots give us an idea of its urban setting. Through one arched window in the Bill Blass Catalog Room, Day photographed the Empire State Building. Because she shot for the interior arch surrounding the window, the view outside was over exposed and she had to burn the buildings back into view in Photoshop.“Most of the correction was for color balance and glare, things you cannot see with your eye. There’s nothing phony here.”But sometimes a good fix is in order. Day liked photographing the interior with the lights on. In a lovely shot of a library table, one of the bulbs in the four lamps there was out. She did not see it at the time. And to set up that shot again would have been costly. So she had an expert Photoshop a slice of light glowing from the bottom of one shade. For much of her time on this job, the exterior of the library was shrouded in canvas for cleaning. So the outside shots were not taken until last February. That meant shooting in the cold and in early light, rousing a homeless person once in a while from the library steps, timing shots between Fifth Avenue buses, sometimes photographing from the conference room of a hotel across the street, and, for one truly amazing panoramic image (made by stitching two shots together) of the library’s front, she and Brinkley had to shovel away some snow. Even then, she spent eight hours in her studio removing, pixel by pixel, little clumps of snow in the low, looped barrier along the front of the building.Now it’s done and she has a big collection of “critters” from the library that did not make it into the book: dolphins, birds, dogs, turtles, horses, a crocodile and bees. Go see for yourself. They are there in the walls and ceilings and corners of this majestic and sometimes quirky place.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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