Innie & Vinnie

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I've been digging the Giuseppe Zanotti campaigns for the past few seasons – Anja Rubik shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. (Spring/Summer 2012 above, Fall/Winter 2011 below.)

Image of the Day

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Visionaire 61: LARGER THAN LIFE, the biggest magazine ever produced ever. The cover image is Lady Gaga by Inez & Vinoodh but I'm mainly posting it because I love the type. Click here for a preview video and if you're in NY, stop by 11 Mercer to look through the issue in person.

Glossy Is As Glossy Does

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Petronio Associates reel for models.com

This week Wayne at MDX posted a good interview with Ezra Petronio, creative director and co-founder – with his wife Suzanne Koller – of Petronio Associates and Self Service magazine. Here's the introduction:

The idea of fashion today is the idea of the still image as seen in glossy magazine pages and big city billboards and posters. The fashion photographers of our moment, in trying to continue the tradition of the modern masters of the trade (Penn, Avedon and Newton ) have been sustaining this art of creating a decisive fashion moment, around the movement of a model in a photo-shoot, where ideas of hair, make-up, styling, lighting have all aligned to create the single frame ideal of fashion. But that was the 20th century. As it becomes clear that the 21st century is digitally driven, how will an entire culture of editors, photographers and advertisers adapt to an audience that grew up with the amplified imagery of music videos and video-games who now view all media through a computer screen?

Hilary Rhoda and Irina Lazareanu photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Self Service issue n°24. Styling by Suzanne Koller.

Petronio:

While there are certain restrictions and adaptations that need to be made with digital design, they are not all that different than the restrictions that exist within traditional formats. Each type media provides an opportunity. It’s important to work with the media and not against it. Each format is best at displaying certain types of content and should be used as such – an iPad is not a TV, a web page is not a book or magazine. Something beautiful can be created for any media without compromise.
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The tactile quality of objects will become more and more objects of luxury, possibly enhancing their value and quality of the content we put on them. As things become more internet-oriented a printed edition of Self Service magazine will become something more collectible and precious, as people collect objects and value them.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Frida Gustavsson answers the Proustian questionnaire for the Self Service blog

Trees

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YSL SS2011 – model Arizona Muse shot in Marrakech by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, with music ("Mushrooms and Roses") by Janelle Monae

Issues

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Three new ones:

A. Emanuelle Alt's first cover as Editor of French Vogue, succeeding Editrix Carine Roitfeld. Gisele by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

B. The third issue of The Gentlewoman – Adele shot by Alasdair McLellan. I'm not really on board with this whole Adele thing (so much singing...) but it's a good photo and the minty color is winning. Seven women I would have rather seen on the cover:
1. Emily Shepard Smith
2. An editor from another magazine, someone like Giovanna Battaglia or Cecilia Dean or Suzy Menkes. There are certain editors at fashion magazines who are more complex than you'd expect, and make for interesting interviews. Maybe it's kind of weird to put someone from another magazine on your own cover but who cares.
3. PJ Harvey? New album, and seems cool.
4. Sarah from Colette in Paris. Possibly too obscure but I guarantee she would be a great interview.
5. Sofia Coppola. Maybe too obvious, but the truth is, she always has interesting things to say.
6. Miranda July.
7. Lauren Hutton or someone else who has been chic since before I was born.

Feel free to chime in with your own suggestions, all 11 of you, if you feel like it.

C. Self Service no.34. Just a great cover shot (also by Alasdair McLellan), and gold foil to boot. Still my favorite magazine, maybe of all time.

Everything is Everything

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Pretty Much Everything 1985–2010: The Newspaper Collector's Edition is a large-format, loose-leaf newsprint book featuring 25 years of work by photographers Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin – designed and published by by M/M (Paris) and printed on the occasion of Inez & Vinoodh's exhibition at Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. In the US it's available in limited quantities from my favorite bookstore in New York, Dashwood Books. (You can also order and get info from mmparis.com.)

Perfume Genius

. Cool packaging and promotional posters/postcards for M/Mink Eau de Parfum, a collaboration between Byredo Parfums (Stockholm) and M/M (Paris).

[Photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin]

Available now at Collette and in October everywhere else. More info and images at mmparis.com

Oh Man

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The Gentlewoman issue 2, featuring photographer Inez van Lamsweerde – sophisticated ladies and men who love them, race to the newsstand.

(previously: The Gentlewoman issue 1)

Stairsteps

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YSL Manifesto VII, directed by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin. Info etc. at yslmanifesto.com

Image of the Day

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A preview of the YSL FW2010 campaign – Daria Werbowy by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. I think the image might just be a snapshot of a proof (?) but I like how the shadows and folds make it seem vintage. (The photos and clothes are timeless.)

[via Fashionologie]

Rising Sun

Visionaire 56 SOLAR uses an innovative printing technique that transforms black & white images to color when they're exposed to direct sunlight. Some samples:

Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin

Richard Burbridge

Alex Katz's painting of my former Visionaire cohort and buddy Kyra Griffin

Looks cool, I'm excited to see it in person. Other contributors include Yoko Ono, M/M (Paris), David Sims, Olaf Breuning, Glen Luchford, Mario Sorrenti, Ryan McGinley, Peter Lindbergh, and more. Go here for more images/info and to pre-order a copy.

The ink is black, the page is white

I love the simplicity of the current Givenchy campaign by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. There's a lot of subtle action going on in what would otherwise be fairly straightforward studio shots, and by straying from their usual (also outstanding) gray backgrounds in favor of higher contrast, it somehow helps capture the somewhat aggressive-seeming attitude of Givenchy very well.



Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci is guest creative director for the current issue of A Magazine as well – definitely worth a trip to the newsstand.