Dear Diane and Shaded Viewers,
At peak desirability their looks command escalating fortunes in a dizzying world where the cleverest girls take their work very seriously – and keep their feet firmly in touch with the ground. US Vogue, 1988.
This descriptive extract of Peter Lindbergh’s iconic photo of supermodels appeared in US Vogue in 1988 and declared a new era of fashion, in which glamorously created celebratory status of serious supermodels were in large embraced by the pop culture industry and the media. In a dizzying world (especially of fashion) an image documents a moment but yet the same moment becomes a remarkable record of something else. When talking about Peter Lindbergh’s fashion photography it is quite impossible to think of his work without linking it to iconic photos of supermodels signed by him. UK Vogue played an inevitable role in this process in 1990 when Lindbergh’s black and white photo of five supermodels: Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford was on its cover. The fashion system with its vampire tendencies feeds itself on the past thus making the past live again in the present. Recently the Pirelli calendar for 2014, which was shot by Lindbergh and Patrick Demarchelier, recalled this magical spirit of the 90’s.
The Gallery HDLU in Zagreb, Croatia is currently exhibiting two series of Peter Lindbergh, called The images of Woman and The unknown. Both series are quiet intriguing as they revel shifting points in his work and fashion that dates form different decades. One group focuses on the 90’s when the famous group of supermodels were at their peak of desirability . The fashion photos are built around commercial fashion photography, which is an unavoidable part of the fashion system that has a clear goal – that is to seduce the spectator. What is seductive about Peter Lindbergh’s fashion photography is the way he frugally represents supermodels thus keeping their feet firmly in touch with the ground, although this ground is no doubt projective. The most important women in his work such as Linda Evangelista, Kristen Mc.Menamy, Milla Jovovich, Nadja Auermann, Amber Valletta, Helena Christensen, Tatjana Patitz, Marie Sophie Wilson and Lynne Koester are usually impeccably displayed but in Lindbergh’s photos they carry ”scars of the life”. The images of woman , which was made between 1985 to 1995, are mostly black and white and reference reportage photography by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Lewis W. Hine. In contrast the series of color photos , The unknown, which were taken in 2000 are dramatic and hardly related to worldly experiences , in this series the mundane utility of a garment is almost overlooked but spectaculary displayed. The unknown is also accompanied by a video projection by Benjamin Lindbergh, one of his sons, who composed the sound track.
If you happen to be in Zagreb, Croatia don’t miss this extraordinary retrospective by Peter Lindbergh, which is on show until May 10, and don’t forget to record the moment at the selfie point!
Later,
Ivana
