All exhibitions
Fashion and Style in Photography 2013
March 15 – May 12, 2013
From March 15 to May 12, 2013 six photo exhibitions held by the Government of Moscow, Moscow City Department of culture and Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow / Moscow House of Photography Museum will take place in the halls of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation in the framework of VIII Moscow International Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography".
"STORY OF AN ERA. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PRINCESS ANNA MARIA BORGHESE"
Curators: Maria Francesca Bonetti, Mario Peliti
The exhibition is organized with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Russia.
"A unique view"
Maria Francesca Bonetti
1898 - 1924: In elegant photo-story of princess Anna Maria de Ferrari, the wife of Scipione Borghese, an autobiographical description of sensitive and refined Roman noblewoman intertwined with the history of Italy at that time making the image archive of the twentieth century replenished with a new original documental source.
Anna Maria, daughter of the Duke of Genoa Gaetano de Ferrari and Maria Annenkov archduchess, as well as the adopted daughter of the Russian Emperor, was born in the castle of Montallegro in March 23, 1874. In 1895 she married Prince Scipione Borghese, the famous traveler, explorer, mountaineer, and a diplomat.
In 1888 George Eastman Company based in the city of Rochester began selling the box camera, designed for enthusiasts and widely distributed due to its accessibility and successful advertising slogan "you push the button, we do the rest". Thanks to this kind of devices, exercises in amateur photography for the first time in history have reached a new level of popularity. Among the followers was Anna Maria, who has devoted herself to a new hobby with systematic regularity almost continuously, since 1898 and until her premature and sudden death, happened in 1924 on the island of Garda.
The photographs by Anna Maria Borghese seem to summarize in very succinct manner the way of photography development, from its inception until the modern style era. These works themselves belong to modern style by right, because of Anna Maria's open mindedness and curiosity and because of multiplicity of countries that she had visited in her travels-adventures together with her husband.
The variety of Princess's visual interests, as well as variety of people and objects captured by her camera boggles the imagination. The portraits of family members and friends, the interiors and exteriors of homes where she lived, familiar landscapes (Bois de Boulogne, the island of Garda, Migliarino, Pantano Borghese), ancient cities of Italy and of the world, where she happened to be, footage from city life, scenes of hunting and sports entertainment or other important events, including airplane flight by Wright brothers... The latter reason is perfectly suited for experiments with the iconography of the moments, which subsequently took a major place in amateur photography of the twentieth century.
The notable period of Anna Maria Borghese's creativity is the time of the World War I, which she spent at the front, working in the Red Cross and courageously capturing what is going on in the trenches, all horror, cruelty and destructive of war. She became one of the first women which managed to take pictures almost on the front. Perhaps these developments provide her creativity personal and original specificity.
Unlike her other famous contemporaries, brothers Francesco Chigi Primoli or Jacques-Henri Lartigue, who often shoot at secular events, using the advantages that gave them their rank, and whose works have been exhibited to the public opinion and received press coverage already at that time, Princess entrusted her view on the world only to a series of albums which were kept from the very beginning surrounded by other family heirlooms. Nowadays they are still guarded by the heirs in Pantano residence, the historic estate of Borghese, Rome.
YURY TOROPTSOV "MARILIN AND I"
Curator: Agnès de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
Presented by Photo 12 Gallery, Paris
"The famous gingham dress! To bring the Beloved Marilyn to life again through it...
to see on each model's face the reflection of what she means to each of them...
and then, in our minds, dream about the strange power of this incarnate garment"
Catherine Deneuve
Why does Marilyn Monroe continue to excite imagination fifty years after her death? What does connect her fans with her today? To find the answers to these questions photographer Yuri Toroptsov appealed to those who are deeply tied to Marilyn to explore in original form the extraordinary vitality and modernity of Marilyn Monroe myth. He published advertisements in newspapers and found out some people in Europe and America, both known and unknown, who accepted his invitation to be photographed with a dress belonging to one of the most famous women in Hollywood, and tell what Marilyn means to them. Among those who responded to the call were: the American photographer Douglas Kirkland, who knew Monroe personally, former French Minister of culture Frederic Mitterrand, producer John Landis, and other completely different people, who share strong feelings towards this actress today.
Artist's statement
These portraits are of people I met in my travels in Europe and in America. They all accepted to be photographed next to an object I carried with me. It was a vintage summer dress dating from the 1950s which belonged to Marilyn Monroe.
In 1999 I had a chance to attend as a spectator "The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe" auction at Christie's in New York. I was intrigued by a masterfully orchestrated ritual in a room filled with people determined to shell out thousands of dollars for the right to own a piece of Hollywood's most iconic woman. It is at Christie's that I first started wondering about the elements of the exceptional longevity and modernity of Monroe’s myth.
A rare opportunity presented itself in 2005, six years after the Christie's auction. A collector friend bought a summer dress from a private wardrobe of Marilyn Monroe. The access I was granted to the relic allowed me to begin my own exploration of Monroe's legend. With the borrowed dress carefully folded in my photographer’s backpack I went on a journey to meet and photograph men and women of all ages who feel the continuing connection to Marilyn Monroe decades after her death.
Yury Toroptsov
MALICK SIDIBÉ "LA VIA EN ROSE"
Curators: Laura Serani, Laura Incardona
Presented by Collezione Maramotti, Italy
The exhibition presents a selection of about fifty mostly unpublished photographs taken from 1960's to 1970's in the capital of Mali - Bamako. These images fully convey the atmosphere of the bustling life of Bamako of those years when the desire of universal unity and integration into world historical process was total. These images have made Sidib? world fame: the parties of 1960-th, the studio portraits and a selection of photos from his archives, telling us about the long and important period in the history of Mali.
"I do believe in the power of image, and that's why all my life I have done portraits of people as good as I only could, trying to fill them with beauty, because life is a gift of God, and you have to live with a smile on your face. Image of Africa too often associated with suffering, poverty, misery, but Africa is not only in this. That's what I always wanted to show in my images", said Malik Sidibé, explaining his mission of a photographer and the importance of his works.
Malick Sidibé is considered as one of the most respected photographers of Africa. In 2007 he was awarded by the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale for achievements in the arts – for the first time in the history of this Festival a photographer became the winner. In 2003 Sidibé was awarded by the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in Sweden, in 2008 by the award of the International Center of photography in New York, in 2009 by a premium Photo España-Baume Mercier & in Madrid, and in 2010 by World Press Photo Award (in the category "Arts and entertainment") in Amsterdam. Numerous publications and books released in Europe United States and Africa are devoted to the creativity of the photographer.
INGE SCHÖNTHAL FELTRINELLI "PEOPLE WHO CHANGED THE TIME"
Curators: Cristina Barbano, Paola Riccardi
With the support of the "INTENSA" bank
In the framework of the Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography" in Moscow will be presented a collection of photo portraits of famous personalities belong to cultural and political life of the twentieth century, made in 1950-s by young photo reporter Inge Schönthal or, later Inge Feltrinelli, in 1972 became the head of one of largest European publishing houses "Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore".
These series of photographs shows the reverently of young German girl towards the world, life and great workers of culture: Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Billy Wilder, Anna Magnani, Simone de Beauvoir and others. The exhibition will also show "Inge Film" an in-depth interview with Inge Feltrinelli, which she gave to journalist Simonette Fiori.
In youth she worked as a photo reporter in Hamburg, New York and Paris, has made many portraits of famous personalities of that time and the famous reportages, among which was "Greece" made together with Federico Patellani. Among her most famous works Greta Garbo's photo published by "Life" magazine and photo reportage about Ernest Heminguei made in Cuba at Finca Vigia.
Inga met Giangiacomo Feltrinelli and after that her interests turned towards publishing. Since then, she rarely comes back to photograph, but for very special cases. Such way appeared the photographs of the writers with whom she was on friendly terms: Henry Miller, Allen Ginsberg, Nadine Gordimer, Gunter Grass, as well as Fidel Castro’s photos, whose autobiography is to be published by Feltrinelli Publishing House.
Today Inge Schönthal Feltrinelli is one of the most influential people in the field of book publishing. Since 1972 when she was elected as President of the Feltrinelli Publishing House, she tirelessly works with foreign publishers and promotes the books by Italian authors abroad, as well as presenting the books by the famous world writers to the Italian readers. In addition, she has made many efforts to open 110 new bookstores "Librerie Feltrinelli" throughout Italy.
In 2000 in Galleria Grazia Neri in Milan was shown an exhibition entitled "INGEFOTOREPORTER" which acquainted the audience with another invaluable and important photo archive. The exhibition lasted quite a long time and was shown in a hundred Italian and European cities, in particular in Bologna, Rome, Verona, Berlin, and Göttingen. The Moscow spectator will see a new version of the exhibition, prepared specially for the Biennale "Fashion and Style in Photography".
JIM LEE "ARRESTED"
Curator: Olga Sviblova
With the support of the AHMAD TEA and the British Council
"Not so with Lee however: Inside their clothes they have bodies and inside their bodies they have souls, and those souls are as ambivalent and needful and beautiful as anyone's."
Foreword by Barry Schwabsky for the book "Jim Lee. Arrested"
"Arrested" is the first Russian retrospective of iconic British photographer and film director Jim Lee (b. 1945). He was a photographer for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Interview, Photo journals, The Sunday Times and The New York Times newspapers, as well as for Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Alexander McQueen Fashion Houses. The exhibition includes 38 black-and-white photographs created in 1960-1970s and in the beginning of 2000s. Critics call Jim Lee "English Answer to Guy Bourdin".
It is no coincidence that the title of the exhibition is "Cardiac Arrest" (in the English version "Arrested"). Jim Lee has survived clinical death three times after heart failure (eng.cardiac-arrest), and a number of other attacks on his health. These accidents became some kind of milestones, marking the stages of his life, for example, "between the time when he nearly drowned (in childhood) and the broken (learning in subcollegiate class, he fell down the stairs)", or "between motor-boat accident (in the Poole harbor when he practically broken his spine bone and deformed two vertebrae) and the broken of pelvic bones (he fell down to concrete from a 6 miters height and broke his pelvic bone in five places)".
The father of the photographer Gary Illtid Lee, has been working in MI-5 British security servise more than 30 years and was the right-hand man of four directors in a row; his mother was a direct descendant of Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, who was the only woman who gave birth to a heir for him; In addition, at least 18 ancestors of Lee family were Knights of the Garter.
Jim Lee start his creativity in late 1960s the era of socio-cultural change in Britain and worldwide, at the times of unsettle the ceremonious and conservative attitudes and the birth of a new style and new values in human relationships, unchained and sincerity. Photographs by Jim Lee, who has amazingly fine feeling of those changes, reflected exactly the point of style genesis. He refuses to Studio shooting and photographs his models on the outside in the wild and in the not a very savory outskirts of London that you will never see on tourist postcards. Often it is shooting of paired models, filled with such vigor and sensuality that when looking at them just quickens the heartbeat.
In 1973, Jim Lee began working with Anna Wintour, who was an Assistant Editor of the fashion magazine Harpers & Queen that time. Together they have done innovative advertising campaigns for Coca Cola, Guinnes and American Express, in 1975 Lee agreed to go to New York, where their cooperation has successfully continued in the magazine Viva in which Wintour was already the Editor of fashion.
Returned to Britain in 1978, Lee began to make commercial clips for Levi's, Elizabeth Arden, BMW, Shell, and other big companies. In 1989 he established his own cinema company The Jim Lee Film Company and in the year 1992 appeared his first feature film "Losing Track", presented at various festivals and received many positive reviews in the British press.
Images created by Jim Lee for the fashion industry, perhaps seems to be too passionate and hot versus cold and indifferent fashion items. This is a photo where you can see a metaphor of love, war, conflict, but there is such a perfect sense of style that they were adopted by the world of fashion.
TOM WOOD "BRITAIN. 1973 - 2012"
Curator: Olga Sviblova
The project is presented by author and Erik Franck Fine Art
With the support of the AHMAD TEA
The exhibition by British photographer Tom Wood (b. 1951) covers some 40 years of his work and includes images from his most acclaimed series and albums - Men and Women, Looking for Love, Bus Odyssey, Photie Man and People. These photographs depict everyday street life in and around Liverpool in a style that can be defined as 'loose, instinctive and dead-on'.
Wood studied in the art department of Leicester Polytechnic (from 1973 to 1976), but even then he was trying out different kinds of film for experimental movies. After turning to photography he often worked with both colour and black-and-white, buying cheap materials and printing in his downtown studios. Today you might think the images were beautifully faded, or processed by an Instagram filter.
From 1982 to 1985 Wood regularly took photographs at the Chelsea Reach nightclub in New Brighton, which resulted in Looking for Love, a series of studies on the theme of growing up. For 18 years he travelled on Liverpool buses, aiming his camera through the window, and the book Bus Odyssey was compiled from some 100,000 negatives. For a further three years, from 1993 to 1996, Wood photographed the Cammell Laird shipyard in Liverpool. One of the photographer's biggest projects was created over a period of 20 years and had all the characteristics of a real-life urban epic - every Saturday he stood outside the Liverpool and Everton stadiums to take shots of football fans. Wood and his camera became such a regular sight in the city streets that he was dubbed the 'photieman'. This became the title of Tom Wood’s best-known book, Photie man.
Wood has a huge body of work, but he was never in a hurry to exhibit his photographs or earn a living from them, and never sought fame. "I wanted to allow that time as a gestation period, each picture should be a discovery. It is about asking a question, you don't know which are the great pictures just like that," he says. Yet even after so much time taking pictures Wood is keen to stress he is still learning about photography and how to convey his feelings through photographs.
The viewing public may find that Tom Wood's images recall a series by another British 'photo-anthropologist' - Martin Parr's The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton, exhibited at MAMM during the 2012 Photobiennale. But despite the coincidence in time and location, with the same littered streets and shabby interiors, Wood's oeuvre never appears so bitterly acrimonious or satirical. This is not documentary photography (Wood himself is unwilling to be included in this genre and prefers to call himself a 'realist'), but rather a photo encyclopaedia portraying the everyday life of the British working class in the finest detail.
