Explore Tag Christof's Palm Springs modernism photography

The work of photographer Tag Christof will take visitors to the new Herman Miller store in Palm Springs this week on a journey across the region's wealth of modernist architecture – a fitting prelude to the Palm Springs Modernism Week preview that launches in the desert city this week (15-18 October 2026).

Herman Miller commissioned the exhibition of Christof's work, titled ‘Hot Line’, to mark the opening of its largest retail location in North America.

Explore Tag Christof's mesmerising Palm Springs modernism photography

The new photography, which was especially produced for this show, spans the Californian hub of midcentury modern, capturing buildings and telling the story of its evolution in the region. It also explores contemporary use, preservation and adaptation of the 20th-century buildings, as they remain ever-popular and are often transformed to take on new functions and ways of life.

'I love these buildings because, even in states of change or transition, they are totems of a time of surging optimism that feels impossible today,' said Christof.

This response to changing needs and times reflects the US furniture brand's ethos too, as Herman Miller global creative directors Kim Colin and Sam Hecht say: 'Herman Miller helps people be comfortable living with change – not just surviving it but living with it, thriving, and understanding its potential as a beautiful way of life, both physically and atmospherically. Tag's photographs capture the beauty of change and the possibility of something new.'

Mixing Palm Springs' established legacy in midcentury treasures with modern-day ingenuity, stewardship, and adaptation provides an interesting platform for debate on what modernism means today – and how it can live on.

‘Hot Line’ is open until Modernism Week 2027 in February, at Herman Miller, 73-425 El Paseo, Suite 110, Palm Desert, CA 92260

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).