Recently, I interviewed photographer Rick Smolan, who - along with his wife and creative partner, Jennifer Erwitt - put together the new photo book, “America at Home: A Close-Up Look at How We Live" from Running Press.

These are the same folks who produced "A Day in the Life of America" and "America 24/7." Smolan is a former TIME, LIFE and National Geographic photographer and now runs Against All Odds Productions with Erwitt.

What was your goal with the book?

“I grew up with LIFE magazine which offered these wonderful glimpses into the lives of people that I’d never meet. I think we need to learn more about each other. I think it is important to see how many different ways people choose to live their lives. The book is like an ink blot test – it means different things to different people. We wanted to give people lots of different ways to experience it ... We also did a sister book ‘UK at Home’ – they said we needed to do it at the same time - whew! So, we had two teams. Google let us move into their offices in London and Paul McCartney wrote the introduction so it worked out pretty well."

Where did the concept come from?

"Well, I have an eight-year-old and a six-year-old. It's amazing how you come to see the world through their eyes. 'America at Home' came through my daughter, Phoebe. She was going on a sleepover and was nervous - what teddy bear should she take? What if she didn't like it? Would I come and get her? In the end, she had a great time. When I picked her up the next morning, I asked her, 'What was the one thing that stood oout the most?' She said, 'Dad, did you know you that other people’s lives are different than ours?' Then, my wife and were talking about it and looking at 'home' in terms of relationships.

Doing this book, it made me realize something: People hang out with people like themselves – there has to be a commonality. Yet, collectively I was stunned at the diversity and seeing how astounindingly different people’s homes are. I mean, so often the houses look the same on the outside but inside, it's a whole different story. Everyone takes the 'home' like a blank piece of paper and draws something unique."

Tell me about the custom cover feature.

"Pick a personal photo - it might be a digital photo or standard photograph - you can scan it, use a cropping tool or whatever. You can produce your own cover using your own photo. You also write the caption. It looks the same what you'd get in the bookstore except it's your personal photo on the cover. We’re the only people that have done this custom cover. People are the surprised, they really love this feature. We've seen some great covers come through."

Tell me about the logistics of this type of project.

"We spend about three months with researchers in New York, just planning. We'd put the word out via user groups and the Internet, looking for people with very interesting and diverse lifestyles who wanted to be a part of this project. We found people in magazines, on the web, talked to journalists and, of course, word of mouth.

Then, we sat down and put them all up on a board - we had a big map with dots on it - and discussed. ‘Ok, we've got too many people in NYC, we need more folks from the Midwest' and so on. Then, we called people up: ‘We have a photographer would like to spend a few days with your family.’ 99.9% people said yes."

The photographs depict people, for better or worse, going about their lives, as if the photographer is a fly on the wall. How did you manage to get people that comfortable?

"The thing is, people can put up a good face for about an hour and then they slide back into their routine. After awhile, people just got used to it and didn't even see the photographer anymore. Also, each photographer probably shot 1,000 photos a day so there's a wide range in there."

Did you provide the photographers with much instruction?

"What we do is, develop a concept, take creative people, give them the resources and put them under pressure. We let them know they are competing and stand back - let them produce. There is that sense that the photographers are discovering the unseen."

Tell me about, what I imagine to be, the colossal editing process.

"We feel strongly that the books are made by the editors. I often say that it's like doing a jigsaw puzzle but you lost the box – you have no idea what the picture is supposed to look like. Well, we ended up with about 250,000 photographs – which all arrive digitally – that come with rudimentary captions. We then have writers go back and re-write the captions.

Y'know, people think that coffee table books are always so nice and perfect like Hallmark cards and we wanted to make this one true-to-life. Some of this is evident in the layout of the book. For example, we included a woman being evicted from her home and then on the next page is $10,000 doll house. It's different things for diffeent people - two realities. There's another example. There's a shot taken Chinatown in NYC – an entire family packed into one room. On the page next to it, a house with so many rooms, they’ve got ‘secret’ rooms behind bookcases.

With these books, We are always fighting the prejudice of, 'What is this? Some patriotic thing?' I’m proud that this not a Disney or a Hallmark thing. These are real people living their lives."

How did you decide which cities? Which photographs?

"It's like taking a pebble and skipping it across the surface of a lake, there’s not goal to try and be fair."

How do you and Jennifer work together – who does what?

"Jennifer is the organizer – she does the budgets, spreadsheets and databases. I do fundraising. We also take turns on the creative side of it. Our company is three people and most of our projects are done like a relay race – passing the baton. We have a tiny office in Sausalito, California. My wife and I have been working together since 1983 and we didn’t have kids until eight years ago – the books used to be our kids. Since we do a book every 18 months – it is like having a kid! We probably would never see each other if we didn’t work together. She should have been a lawyer, she’s got an amazing mind. I should also mention that my wife's father is Elliot Erwitt, he is one of the world's great photojournalists and a hero of mine."

I see that you have a couple photos in the book as well?

"Yes, but I’m way too close to the project so I submitted my photos under an alias. I didn’t want anybody to choose them to suck up to me!" (Ultimately, two of Rick’s photos were chosen for the book.)

Do you have a favorite photo in the book?

"There are so many but there is one, on a double page spread. It shows a line of kids, some of them handicapped, riding bikes and wheelchairs to avoid a storm. This Florida couple has adopted so many handicapped children and I just love the background and the variety of their circumstances and yet, all just kids." (Found on Page 166.)

Tell me about the Amateurs section of the book.

"We invited any body with a digital camera to participate. We got the word out through Snapfish, Google, IKEA. We'd give out 'daily assisngments' – morning rush, dinner time and so on. About 10 percent of the book came from amateurs. We got tons of baby pictures and people asleep - about 150,000 photos came in - an amazing response."

Tell me about your home – anything that makes it unique?

"It's kind of schizophrenic these days. We'd been living in Mill Valley (California) for the last 20 years but last year, we moved to the Upper West side of Manahattan. Having two kids, I feel outnumbered. I’ve never been so tired in my life – it’s a three ring circus! The kids adore New York - Central Park is my backyard - but they miss their friends in Mill Valley. We've got friends cat-sitting for the year we are gone. I like the gentleness in Northern California – everything is crowded here in New York. Also, I miss my walks up in the hills in Mill Valley. I don't know. We haven’t decided yet if we’ll stay."

It's great that you supplemented the photos with interesting statistics and well-written essays. I especially liked the contributions from (New York Times columnist) David Pogue and Amy Tan.

"That’s the big challenge with our books – people think coffee table books are so bland and just flip through the pages. We wanted to provide more than just the photos. I'm so glad you enjoyed the essays. I was floored when Matt Groening agreed to write the Forward. We were so excited that writers of this stature would want to participate. David Pogue is a friend of mine and he's so prolific – amazing the influence he has.

The statistics were great in terms of providing a 30,00-foot view compared to the personal view that the photos provide. It helps illustrate a full picture - that 1/5 of or country doesn’t speak English at home or that most people live within 50 miles of where they were born. I’ve always loved statisfitcs but they are much more interesting within the context."

Other notable factoids about Americans included in the book:

As many as 3.5 million people experience homelessness in a given year - one percent of the U.S. population.

More than 1.7 million American households have adopted children, 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Today, the average new single-family home is 2,349 square feet. In 1950, it was just 983 square feet.

But Rick and I both agreed on our favorite snippet:

80 percent of married men say they would marry the same woman if they took a time machine back to the day they got married. Only 50 percent of married women would do the same.

Ha!

Blogger Michelle Mitchell has posted a great quiz based on the book's factoids in her blog, Scribbit. Take the quiz to find out if you are a 'typical' American - whatever that means.

While we're at it - one of my favorite 'home-life' blogs belongs to the cousin of a co-worker - called Warp & Woof. I love it - buncha earthy folks I've never met but would probably love. Careful when visiting the blog though, it's going to make you run out and start raising chickens.