In 2015, Jeff and I stole a weekend in Palm Springs and checked into a hotel we’d never tried before: The Parker. The decor by Jonathan Adler was extremely unique, and there were often hints of unexpected elements- the banana peel sculpture, the hidden hammocks, the DRUGS sign in the lobby. It was a little wild to me at the time. By the pool, my imagination then began to run wild, literally! I was envisioning penguins by the chaise longues, a mischievous monkey near the bar cart, maybe even a lion.
After that weekend at The Parker, I couldn’t stop picturing animals as “guests” of the hotel. A friend knew one of the owners, so I flew to New York, pitched the wild idea to the actual Mister Parker himself, and after a long talk he, and miraculously greenlit the project at his unique desert oasis. In order to bring this vision to life, we took great care to find the perfect partner. We found a team located in the desert that works with rescued animals- the animals are all born into captivity, mostly to owners that think owning a baby animal is “cute” and by the time they (quickly) grow into adulthood, the animals survival is put into question. This group takes great care with a myriad of wild animals. In order to protect their immediate and future well being, they support their funding by allowing these beautiful creatures to work, on a very limited basis, on photoshoots and movie productions. I felt so fortunate to get connected to the right group. In February of 2015 we began with a shot at dawn, spanning over two days, wrapping before guests even woke- missing the giraffe valet!
The monkey stole the show, flamingos posed by the lemonade stand and the life-size chessboard was poetry against The Parker’s mid-century bones.
What most people don’t realize when they look at the series is that “Gray Malin at the Parker” actually took three years to complete. Over long days in 2015, 2016, and 2017, three shoots of various animals of all shapes and sizes were completed and released in three installments. I will forever be grateful to the team at the Parker for allowing me this incredible opportunity, in particular Marisa Zafran, who helped push the project from dream to reality.
The images went into my first ever kids book published in 2018. It allowed me treasured moments reading my own book to my children from their toddler years to today. I am extremely proud of this book as there are few photography books for children published and I was honored to be the author of one of the special few out there. Find the book here!
FOLLOW ME AROUND THE WORLD WITH LE MERIDIEN
Shortly after the Parker wrapped, I hit the road quite hard once again. I was offered a unique chance to align with Le Meridien hotels in an artistic partnership named “FOLLOW ME” my first global endeavor. We had a grand idea to create amazing photoshoots of some of their unique properties throughout the world. We would then use the imagery on key cards embellished with my images at all their properties, and every lobby would display a non-repetitive entire 24 hour loop of photos from my (then) brief career. I can’t even fathom now how we filled 24 hours of footage, but we did it! Maybe one day I’ll watch it all!
The first project was the Ra Hotel outside Barcelona in the coastal area near Sitges. This is where I shot my series “Poolside”. I designed a set of colorful pool floats placed in huge reflecting pools at the property, and captured them from above from helicopter, ladder, and cherry picker all while harnessed in. This was completely art directed by me, from sourcing the props, styling the models, and executing the shot. The behind the scenes video is a favorite of mine to look back on.
A few months later in early 2015, we were set to celebrate the launch of the collaboration back in Spain, but not before I stopped over in another magical land, Bhutan. At the time, Bhutan, a small landlocked country in Asia, had tight controls on tourism but was finally beginning to open up. Le Meridien was one of the most welcoming western hotels in the country. Upon traveling to this extremely spectacular place at the foothills of the Himalayas, I was blown away by the kindness of its people and their seemingly endless sunny disposition on life. Indeed Bhutan is called “The Land of Happiness” and I wanted this series to reflect that sentiment. I juxtaposed whimsical, joyful balloons against the vast landscape and the seemingly solemn monks that were actually quite happy to participate in this shoot. The video of this series is spectacular!
We finished this partnership in 2016 with an incredibly unique series, The Art of Living.
This series was a celebration of my love of design against the backdrop of the pristine turquoise waters of Bora Bora, and the jaw-dropping Mount Otemanu in the distance beyond. Growing up spending summers on Lake Michigan, our mid-century home was decorated with iconic original Herman Miller pieces. I grew up with this scene of my grandfather's authentic Eames Chair looking out onto the endless expanse of the lake in front of our home. That memory stuck with me as a collision of two beautiful things- one manmade, one natural.
When I saw the scout photos of the Le Meridien property in Bora Bora I knew I had met my destined location for this project. I envisioned a mirrored raft that would show mid-century modern furniture against a totally unexpected environment. What we also didn’t expect was that every time a tiny wave came by- this mirrored platform would need to be completely wiped down after each shot and repositioned by team members in jet skis!
HOME BY DESIGN
Back home in Los Angeles, Jeff and I finally found a house we adored and could afford. When I quit my job, I quietly let go of the idea that I’d ever own a home in Los Angeles. So when Jeff and I found a three-bedroom 1930s Spanish bungalow in a neighborhood we loved, it felt unreal. The house became my new dream project. Designing rooms around the art expanded my thinking from “photograph” to how art lives in a home: interiors, products, storytelling for families. Everything came about building a world people wanted to step into—on the wall, on the page, and in their everyday lives.
The detached garage became my studio; two employees and I worked out back while the third bedroom turned into a print room, and two interns floated between.
While furnishing the living room, I had a thought: what if One Kings Lane, where my work was already sold, helped me finish the space—and then we hosted a shop-the-room event online? They loved it. We added the outdoor patio too. Curating furniture to complement my photographs—and then watching people buy directly from that story—was a fresh kind of marketing. It made me wonder: why stop there?
Williams-Sonoma did our kitchen, Serena & Lily followed with a guest room makeover, and more home design projects unfolded in my lifestyle blog. It was the start of building a world people could step into—on the wall and in everyday life.
Within a year of living there, it was clear we’d outgrown the bungalow. We signed a five-year lease on an office in West Hollywood. Furnishing that space felt like we had so much momentum: this wasn’t a side hustle anymore, it was a brand.
Around then, an interior designer suggested I gift a print to a popular blogger she was working with. I hesitated—for free?—but said yes. It worked. Traffic surged, new eyeballs saw my work, and the Instagram following grew. This was the booming time of influencer marketing. My own Instagram grew quickly in tandem as a result. Then something completely unexpected happened.
PUSH INTO PUBLISHING
One day in 2015, an email from an editor at Abrams Books in New York, Rebecca Kaplan, landed in my inbox: Have you ever thought about making a book? I practically levitated.
I’d photographed coastlines across six continents from helicopters; now those images had a home. We built BEACHES exactly as I’d sketched it on day one. I loved that it gave anyone who’d ever bought a print (and my parents!) something to flip through and share. I was very much up to the task, but had no idea how to proceed.
Under Rebecca’s guidance, I was paired with a truly amazing graphic designer, Michelle Kim, who helped me bring BEACHES and the story it tells, to life. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Michelle, along with my members of my very talented team, in all of the books since.
BEACHES holds a special place in my heart as the one that started it all.
Throughout the rest of 2015, while working on BEACHES, I released my Sperry Top-Sider Collaboration (which you can read about here on my favorite collaborations blog) and continued work on my own products including beach towels, napkins, and more. But so much of my energy in the latter half of that year went into BEACHES.
BEACHES, THE TIMES, AND RIHANNA
BEACHES released in May of 2016 with a launch party at the West Hollywood studios of floral designer extraordinaire, Eric Buterbaugh. Everyone told me $40 coffee-table books don’t become bestsellers. I had no idea what to expect and no expectations, but I was excited to get this book out to the world. I wouldn’t find out for several weeks how it did, but I didn’t give it much thought other than “I hope people like it!”
I’ll never forget the big day it all came together. We just spent Memorial Day weekend celebrating the start of summer and Jeff’s birthday with our friends. It was the last day of the trip. We went to Brooklyn for a business meeting and took a taxi across the Brooklyn Bridge for dinner in Manhattan, and just as we crested over the bridge into the city below, my phone rang. It was my publisher, Rebecca, calling with some news:
BEACHES had hit the New York Times list.
She literally screamed on the phone and so did we (that poor cab driver!). We headed straight to a dinner to celebrate this amazing news, and while at dinner my phone buzzed yet again with something I also never expected: Rihanna had posted videos with the:
Gray Malin × Funboy swan float. It went viral. Two surreal moments in one afternoon.
In 2016 I also had my first public art installation on the Sunset Strip: “The Big Llama” billboard, utterly surreal to drive by.
I then took BEACHES on a small tour—San Francisco, Chicago, New York, the Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard, Miami. In my hometown of Dallas, 300 people lined up to get their copies signed. Seeing those faces—beyond the grid—lit a fire in me to keep going.
As more people shared BEACHES styled on their coffee tables—candles, flowers, stacks of magazines—I started imagining a wider world for the brand. Trays, coasters, candles—objects that live with the photographs and make a room feel complete.
2016 saw some further big brand growth- it went so fast. I They said yes. Suddenly my name and imagery were sitting in Nordstrom, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Barneys, and dozens of small shops. Collaborations turned out to be a powerful way to let my work travel.
But that year, I realized I also wanted to manufacture my own products and build the Gray Malin Home Collection. The first lesson came fast: unless you have wide distribution, the buy-in is huge—and risky. I landed a meeting at Neiman Marcus in Dallas thinking I’d present to one person; ten executives filed in. I was terrified…and then they said yes. Their commitment lowered the risk and gave the collection a real runway.
That night at dinner, my parents asked how I was really doing. For once, I didn’t say “great.” I was overwhelmed. Jeff, who’d built a stellar career in retail tech and finance at Disney and Mattel, did something I never expected: he offered to join the company. Today he’s our COO (and still my husband), and working together has been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey.
2017: RIDING HIGH IN THE SKY
With Neimans on board, I invested in a New York trade show booth in January 2017. We displayed trays, coasters, iPhone cases, beach towels, luggage tags, even a holiday ornament. Five days later we’d opened 50+ new accounts. Meanwhile, Jeff took over a long-stalled website redesign so we could add a proper shop for home and a lifestyle/blog area for ideas and inspiration.
While the site took shape, I built my second coffee-table book, Escape, a counterpart to BEACHES. This one gathered aerials of urban parks, ski mountains, surf breaks, salt flats, and new coastlines—places that feel like breathers. The cover, a single swimmer in Bora Bora, became a little portal on the coffee table: look down, go elsewhere.
I was on a plane quite a lot these days- I had a mindset I had to capture as much work as possible before the moment passed. On one of many flights that year, I tossed baking sprinkles into my carry-on (of course I bring sprinkles on a plane!), rimmed the plastic cup mid-air, snapped a photo out the window, and posted. By landing, it had gone viral. People wanted the airline, the recipe, the magic. We worked with a New York partner to create the Sprinkle Carry-On Cocktail Kit so anyone could make the moment themselves.
That one post sparked a leap I didn’t see coming: portraiture. I imagined pop-culture icons shown only by a hand at an airplane window—the clothing and cocktail doing the storytelling. We flew to Napa and, at 30,000 feet, photographed nods to Jackie Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, and my favorite, Edie Beale. We were nervous to release it—it felt so different—so we waited two years. Today Bon Voyage is in its fourth edition with 30+ icons, and a print hangs in our living room.
The brand’s travel DNA kept blossoming. We partnered with Away on a three-piece luggage collection with my photography printed inside—water, snow, beach. By holiday, the collab sold out and people still ask for it. We also created fine-art images with Veuve Clicquot and then teamed up with Ladurée on a special macaron box and a limited-edition print. Collaborations let the work travel to places my studio couldn’t reach alone. The year ended with a multi-city book tour of ESCAPE and I gave myself some time over the holidays to finally breathe, and think about the future more clearly.
2018: BIG DECISIONS
Jeff and I had long discussed having children together even while we were in our early stages of dating. By 2018, we’d checked so many boxes we once thought impossible—except the biggest one: a family. From our first doctor meeting to the day our children arrived, it was two years of paperwork, planning, and hope. We went on a trip with friends to southeast asia for some much-needed zen early that year, and we decided during this quiet, focused, intimate time to finally move forward with our plan and make 2018 our family year. Lots of planning came into fruition by the time we announced the expected arrival of our kids in the fall of that year.
But you know me - my creative mind never stopped. In 2018, I kept thinking about an earlier series, Aqua Glam, and the magic of working with the Aqualillies. Synchronized swimming has this contagious elegance—movement that feels graphic and glamorous all at once. One afternoon on Pinterest I stumbled on the Coral Casino in Montecito, a legendary, members-only club from 1937 with more Hollywood history than any pool should rightly hold. Getting access required approval from the owner, Ty Warner, who, as fate would have it, owned a copy of BEACHES and said yes.
I brought back the Aqualillies as models, and we leaned into vintage styling: bathing caps, classic suits, cabanas, beach balls, even balloons. The more we shot, the more I realized this wasn’t simply about synchronized swimming; it was about recreating mid-century moments with a modern wink. Three dancers with legs raised and a beach ball in a cabana. A pink rotary phone “poolside call.” The pictures felt timeless—like scenes you could have found in a family album, just sharper and sunnier.
Between the shoot and the release in January 2019, Montecito and Santa Barbara suffered devastating mudslides and fires. When Santa Barbara Magazine returned with its first issue after the disaster, they chose one of the Coral Casino images for the cover—an image of lightness and order in a moment that needed both. That meant a lot.
After the Coral Casino, I took my whole team to Marfa, Texas, back to the Prada Marfa installation where so much began. We tossed rainbow cowboy hats in the air, perched a few on the awning, hired cowboys and horses, and brought shopping bags. It felt good to stand on that same stretch of road and see how far we’d come.
Back home, we realized our Los Angeles bungalow had been outgrown. Down the street, a new build appeared—New England meets Southern Colonial style, a double-porched façade shaded by two pepper trees. It felt like a house you could raise kids in. We rolled the dice and bought it, moving into a true blank canvas. I sketched a vision room by room so the space would feel warm, personal, and lived-in from day one.
We started outside—benches, cushions, hanging chairs—so the porches invited you to sit and stay. Inside, the kitchen got blue-and-white ginger jars and little moments of pattern.
Our primary bedroom drew on a trip to the Bahamas: grasscloth on the walls, a touch of bamboo texture, classic fabrics, and Italian photographs that balanced the traditional bones.
Then came the news that changed everything: twins. The two front bedrooms—connected “Jack and Jill” style—were perfect. We hired a designer and created distinct spaces: Max’s room: light blue wallpaper, tailored fabrics, and animal prints from the Parker series—classic and calm. Dove’s room: soft pink ribbon detailing at the doors and windows, layered textiles, and art from Coral Casino and the Beverly Hills Hotel—feminine and airy.
We also made a decision for another major house project when Jeff and I bought a small, 100-year-old lake house in the Lake Michigan community where I grew up summering. It was a true fixer-upper, shag carpet and all, and we dove into a nine-month remodel. With a builder and the very talented LA-based designer Kate Lester, we mapped where the art would live, how the kitchen would anchor the front of the house, how an open living/dining plan could gather people, and how a new sunroom could drink in the lake light. Seeing the befores and after still makes me smile. It felt like planting a flag for the next chapter—a home for a lifetime of memories, and the first time we seriously talked about starting a family. We were so thrilled to share the final reveal and so appreciative of Kate’s innate ability to bring her west coast style into our east coast (or in this case, midwest) coastal comfort zone.
Professionally, I was quietly working on a limited-edition photograph of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. We secured access across Fifth Avenue on the roof of Saks, where I climbed a ladder to clear the ledge and expose a perfect top-down. The final image is actually stitched from multiple frames—the only way to hold the full height of the scene in crisp detail. Jeff and I flew to New York to celebrate its launch during the tree lighting; it was one of those pinch-me moments I’ll always keep.
Finally, the call came early in December 2018-the babies were arriving a month early. We raced to San Diego, where our surrogate was delivering. Dove Mazi Malin arrived first at 7 lb 1 oz; Max Talbot Malin followed at 5 lb 15 oz. We had twenty perfect minutes together before Max struggled to breathe and was admitted to the NICU. Those days were a blur—Dove discharged to Los Angeles, Max still in the hospital, Jeff and I shuttling and dividing to conquer. Anyone who has lived through the NICU knows the ache and the gratitude that coexist there.
When we finally brought them both home, I walked through our front door carrying our children and felt the house transform into a home in an instant. Every sketch, swatch, and decision had been pointing to that moment.
2019: NESTING AND RECHARGING
Jeff and I had hit the road so hard in 2018 traveling to capture as much work as we could knowing that we’d have to slow down in 2019. By in the 9 months before our kids were born we went to Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, the UK, Italy, France, Harbour Island, Japan, Amsterdam, Salzburg, and more. I mean to think about all that travel now is so exhausting. But we were on a mission!
When the kids arrived in December 2018, the days melted into the new year. The early months of 2019 were consumed with family time. Long walks for naps with the kids in carriers, the joys of bath time, bottles, and diapers (oh my!) create memories every parent cherishes.
We spent the summer in Michigan for the first time in our newly finished home. After months of work we shared the big reveal, and we could not have been happier.
CIAO 2019
We had many fun professional moments in 2019, like a collab we created with Splendid on a spring and summer line of their comfy sophisticated clothes inspired by my work, as well as more new products of our own like gift wrap and passport cases.
But the big focus for me professionally was to take the many years of my Italian roadtrip photography and put it all together into my next coffee table book, ITALY. You can read more about my adventures here in a recent look back post on my road trips over my favorite country in the world. I say in the book, and it’s quite true, that it stands as my love letter to Italy. I have said a lot about my love of la Dolce Vita, and I won’t repeat it all here, but not a summer goes by where my heartstrings don’t feel the yearning pull of the Italian coastline.
In the fall, the book launched with a fabulous book tour hosted by Serena and Lilly and Eataly throughout some locations of theirs in the country with our (natural) beverage partner, Aperol! That tour brought many smiles to my face. The book today is still one of my best selling over time- in the next year or two it will probably overtake BEACHES for the #1 all time book of mine.
As 2019 wound down we looked back on a beautiful first year with our children, and at last felt like we could get back to a little more work-life balance. Oh little did we all know what was ahead of us then. But i’ll leave it with this blissful look back at the first year of our twins lives. We’ll get to 2020-2024 in the next chapter!