If you have ever leafed through a magazine, then you have seen their work. It’s that simple. They’re among the most sought after fashion photographers. For over twenty five years the strangely perfect Dutch couple known as Inez & Vinoodh, have been creating larger-than-life photographs of iconoclast figures and celebrities for most of the world’s major leading magazines and fashion campaigns.
Their photos skillfully walk the fine line between high-end glossy editorials and showcase-ready artwork that merit the standards set by top art galleries including The Gagosian Gallery in Paris, which opened a retrospective exhibit of their work early this year and will now move the collection over to their Beverly Hills gallery and run it from July 12th – August 23rd.
Inez & Vinoodh are both talent partners and marital partners, and this double relationship is reflected in the way they play with dual parallels in their photographs, mixing glamour with gothic, pop art with classical imagery, and hyper-realism with human sensibility. Supreme idols become gentle giants and models become far from perfect or sometimes unfathomably beautiful.
The two partnered up after meeting at the Vogue Academy of Fashion Design in 1986. They rose through the art community with their experimental photographs, eventually landing a yearlong residency at The PS1 Contemporary Art Museum in New York from 1992-1993. They finally broke into fashion in 1994 with their photographic story For Your Pleasure released in the cult 90s magazine, The Face.
Since then, they have been two of the most commissioned photographers whose work are by now ubiquitous in fashion. And although their work is no longer as experimental as it once was, they have been credited as early pioneers of digital manipulation that is still relevant and used by so many other photographers today.
The exhibit will explore the various phases they have covered through almost three decades worth of work, encompassing a large collection of portraits and early ambitious work.
The show’s opening reception takes place at the Beverly Hills Gagosian Gallery, July 12th, from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.