life partners and artistic collaborators, Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are two cult photographers who for over 25 years have built an empire of iconic artwork. Their partnership not only fueled by their love for one another, but their love for human kind and unveiling the sublime essence of human identity.
“That’s really why we are photographers, because we love people. The possibilities of expression through the body – its forms and poses and movement – is what really drives a lot of our work.” – Inez Van Lamsweerde
Inez Van Lamsweerde was born in 1963 in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Vinoodh Matadin was born in 1961 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The two artists met at the Vogue institute of fashion technology in Amsterdam where they both studied fashion design. Inez and Vinoodh have developed a synchronized approach to photography. Their technique is to capture a single subject from multiple angles. “I’m usually the one that directs the model and gets the pictures where the model is looking into the lens. Vinoodh is the one that walks around,” said Inez.
Their audacious images have bolstered expression in fashion and fine art. Their photographs tell beautiful and grotesque stories of human identity, gender, sexuality and abstract renditions of consumer culture. Their avante- Garade images of nude portraiture, fashion, still life and popular culture constantly seek to challenge conservative conventions of society.
The dynamic image-makers were among the first to use digital manipulation in the 90’s to corrupt realism in photography. Their hyper-stylized images radically revised the meaning of photography, by challenging the laws of capturing the ‘decisive moment’. Their images represent a combination of gothic art, surrealism and pop culture. “We love making people as heroic as could possibly be.”
The couples breakthrough into the industry was their surreal editorial series ‘for your pleasure’, published in april 1994 issue of The face magazine. This was a groundbreaking series in the 1990’s, as it was the first time a magazine saw highly digitally edited images. The series launched their careers, and was the just the beginning of major fashion labels demanding their skills. They began working on advertising campaigns for major labels such as Balmain, Yves saint Laurent, and Yamamoto.
In February 2001 they shot their first Vogue Paris editorial, which followed their first cover for the magazine in 2001, which featured Christy turlington. This marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the magazine, with 32 vogue paris covers to this day.
Their work has appeared all over the world, from gallery walls to fashion publications such as the visionaire and major campaigns such as dior, calvein klein, Louis Vuitton and miu miu. Michael Bracewell defines them as “potent protagonists of the post-Warhol era, infiltrating the pristine mirror of consumer culture precisely in order to destabilize it.” Possibly their most significant and recognized project is their Me kissing vinoodh series in 1999. This series is an abstract rendition of their love and identity.
Today they look beyond photography and into the design marketplace, with their fine jewelry line, which launched in 2014. Currently living in New York, the pairs creative vision is to build a lifestyle brand, which represents their love and art. Their seamlessly exquisite artwork has redefined the visual world of fashion. Their ornate images continue to merge realism and fantasy to tell poetic stories of human identity. “It’s finding the ultimate version of the human being that’s in front of you and trying to pull out the essence of what that is for us.”
To read more about Inez and Vinoodh, check out Fashion Industry Broadcasts, ‘Masters of Photography VOL9- living legends’
Masters of Photography Vol 9 – Living Legends and the other 7 in the series are available as fixed format eBooks for $19.99 through all major online sellers including Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Google Books and Kobo! You will be able to download a copy of this 200 page book to your preferred tablet device.
Kindle : http://bit.ly/KindleMOPVol9
Amazon: http://bit.ly/AmazonMOPvol9
Google Play: http://bit.ly/GoogleMOPvol9
Kobo: http://bit.ly/KoboMOPvol9
