Inez & Vinoodh Open a 40-Year Retrospective in the Netherlands
2 min readFresh after fashion month, legendary fashion photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are the subjects of a retrospective exhibition of their 40-year career at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands. Can Love Be a Photograph spans 18 galleries at the museum, celebrating the Dutch-born artists’ partnership since 1986 and exploring their artistic practice alongside an expansive editorial portfolio.
The exhibition, whose opening on March 20 saw attendees like fashion designers Michael Kors and Haider Ackermann, is organized thematically rather than chronologically, grouping works by their relationship to one another in the photographers’ creative journey. Inez & Vinoodh are known for their experimentation in photography, bridging the art and fashion worlds with their provocative narratives and visual techniques. Several past works are shown for the first time in the exhibition along with the duo’s latest body of work, Think Love.
Alexander McQueen (2004).
Perhaps Inez & Vinoodh’s most popular works are their fashion photographs, including editorial shoots (like that of Rosalía for ELLE’s September cover above) and campaigns for Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel, which hold a dedicated space in the exhibition. Portraits of Lady Gaga, Prince, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and A$AP Rocky are presented in large-scale monuments alongside the pair’s genre of floral still life works, highlighting the variety and potential of digital image-making.
A Polaroid self-portrait of Inez & Vinoodh.
The exhibition is encompassed in the catalog, Can Love Be a Photograph – 40 Years of Inez & Vinoodh, available worldwide and in the museum shop, which features essays by fellow tastemakers and the curator of photography at the Kunstmuseum, Willemijn van der Zwaan. The book also includes an interview between Tilda Swinton and the photographers themselves, to reflect on their career and works. The exhibition is on view now through September 6.
See Selected Works from ‘Can Love Be a Photograph’
